


Fast Times at Midtown High

by rivalmagician



Series: Reincarnation Series [4]
Category: Amazing Spider-Man (2012), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (2012), Young Avengers
Genre: F/M, Future Fic, High School, M/M, Reincarnation, Superheroes, Teenagers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-03
Updated: 2013-03-15
Packaged: 2017-11-23 10:54:15
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Underage
Chapters: 7
Words: 21,828
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/621316
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rivalmagician/pseuds/rivalmagician
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Set during the events of The Amazing Spider-Man. Phil discovers what it means to be a hero while Clint is recruited against his will into the school play. They both learn just how hard relationships can be, especially when secrets are being kept.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Joe always wanted the easy life; he never wanted to work hard for something if it was easier to do it a…less legal way. He wasn’t quite sure how he had stumbled into a life of bank robbery, but he enjoyed it, and if he did say so himself, he was pretty good at it.

He hadn’t been caught…yet.

Everything had been going smoothly. The guys he was working with were professional, none of the employees or customers had acted up and they’d only had to fire a couple of shots. Joe was going to come out of this well. Or so he thought until Vasquez got hit by an arrow. 

An arrow…

They all hit the deck trying to find out where the Palaeolithic projectile had come from when there was a sudden gust of wind and a blur which darted through the bank foyer and knocked Troy and Vic into a wall and out cold. 

Joe was getting pissed now, so he went for his gun, “Whoever the hell is there…come out now or I’ll start shooting all these nice people,” he said aiming his gun into the crowd of panicking people. Joe really wasn’t the type to start shooting, it was messy and usually ended bad, but sometimes in situations like this his temper got the better of him. 

He wasn’t expecting what happened next. Out of thin air, four teenagers emerged; two of which were holding bow and arrows, one of which appeared to be green and the last one who announced with a theatrical hand gesture, “Surprise!” 

The boy with the bow and arrow, and Joe can tell he’s just a boy even though he’s wearing a purple hoodie that obscures most of his face and sunglasses that cover his eyes, darts forward and fires an arrow over his head which embeds itself into the wall near the security camera. While distracted by this Joe doesn’t notice the kid’s next move which is a kind of ninja kick that he’s only ever seen on TV. Joe gets a foot to the chest which knocks him to the floor. 

Meanwhile Morgan, who is the biggest and strongest in the group, tries to take on the green Hulk-kid but gets thrown through a glass partition for his trouble. There are police sirens in the distance now and Joe suspects that he’s in for a spell in prison.

It never used to be like this. You used to only have to deal with the police or government agencies; but now every whack-job with a costume and a weapon is out to get you. Damn superheroes.

* * * * * 

The group reconvenes in a café across town from the bank robbery. It’s a place in the shadow of Avengers Tower that Steve first introduced them to. Phil’s already waiting for them, frowning at his laptop and drinking strong coffee that Pepper keeps saying will stunt his growth and Clint knows will make him cranky when he comes down off of his caffeine high. 

“Did we do good or what?” Clint says, sliding into the booth next to him and kissing him on the cheek. Phil responds with a grumble which Clint takes as a sign to get more coffee in him. He goes to the counter to order with the others.

It took a little more persuading to get Teddy the Skrull-Kree hybrid to join the Young Avengers but he’d agreed eventually, on the condition that his boyfriend, Billy, be allowed to join with them. Billy, as it turns out, is some kind of magik wielding mutant, probably more powerful than the rest of them combined. He’s also a dork to rival Phil himself, taking every spare moment to fanboy over the Avengers. He’s currently talking a mile a minute about how he was able to keep them all invisible as the criminals stormed the banks. Clint’s got to admit that was pretty cool. 

Tommy’s currently ordering a herbal tea and at a bemused look from Kate, shrugs and says, “What? You don’t think I’m jittery enough without drinking coffee?” 

They finally all settle down enough to sit down at the booth with Phil and listen to his verdict. He did, after all, do most of the work. Clint will never know how Phil manages it but since they’ve started this whole Young Avengers thing, Phil’s got contacts in the criminal world, he listens to the police radio and he even knows how to watch the CCTV of most buildings in the city. Clint’s pretty in awe of that because for him, the computer is for porn and watching funny animal videos forwarded to him from Tommy. 

“So, pretty cool, huh?” Tommy says eagerly.

“It was alright,” Phil says noncommittally. 

“Alright?” Kate says, sounding unimpressed, “I’d say it was more than alright. No one of the civilians got hurt, nothing got stolen and all the culprits were apprehended,” 

“You were lucky,” Phil says, turning his laptop screen around to show them the footage of the attempted robbery, “First thing, everyone saw Tommy coming in, second, Billy, you’re cover was good but you never disguise your face, people are going to recognise you if this footage gets out,”

Billy pulls a suitably chastened face, “My parents would freak,” 

“Also, you were all too slow,” Phil says, replaying the footage again, “If these guys had reacted any faster, someone could have got hurt,” he finishes by pausing on the guy Clint took pointing a gun at one of the customers. 

They’re all quiet for a good long while after that. 

“Well, that’s really killed my buzz,” Teddy says disappointedly. 

“Yeah, Phil,” Tommy taunts, “We did good out there,”

“I’m saying you didn’t,” Phil concedes calmly, “But you can do better,”

Kate rolls her eyes and gets up, “Yeah, well that was nice,” she sighs, “But I have a math test tomorrow and I should probably get at least a few hours sleep,”

“We have about half an hour to get before curfew,” Billy says, looking at his watch.

“Which gives us about fifteen minutes to make out,” Teddy nods solemnly. 

Having made their excuses the others all drift out of the café, considerably less cheerful than they were when they entered. Tommy disappears into a blur without another word, probably not headed home but to cause some trouble somewhere. 

Clint exhaustedly rests his head in his arms, watching Phil carefully who seems to have slumped in defeat as soon as the others left.

“They don’t like me very much,” he says out loud. 

“You’re not making any friends,” Clint replies glumly. 

“I’m not trying to make friends,” Phil says, snapping up that bland façade that he seems to have developed and uses whenever he’s trying to be more grown up than he’s supposed to. It actually freaks Clint out a bit because he can’t read him when he’s like that, “I just want you all to get better and I don’t want anyone to get killed,”

“I know that,” Clint assures him, “They’re just eager, I guess,”

Phil humphs grumpily and Clint can tells that he’s going to have to do some cunning relationship manoeuvres if he wants to get a goodnight kiss before they part.

“But you’re doing the right thing,” Clint says quickly, “I know we don’t work so well together yet, but I think the problem is that we’re always competing with each other,”

“What do you mean?” Phil says looking at him hopefully. 

“It’s always me and Kate against Billy and Teddy with Tommy trying to beat us all,” Clint explains, “We need something to bring us together,”

“I thought a mutual want to help people and fight crime would be enough,” Phil frowns. 

“Well, I guess it’s not enough to make them all like each other,” Clint sighs, “I dunno…maybe it’ll just take time,”

“I suppose so,” Phil agrees and begins to pack up his laptop. The waitress behind the counter is cleaning up and they both should be heading home. 

Clint straightens up and stretches enough to make his joints pop and gets to his feet, “See you Beth,” he calls to the blonde woman cleaning up and heads out the door with Phil. 

Clint escorts Phil to his street, because his mother raised a gentleman, and quite happily gets his goodnight kiss. He’s just about to head to the subway station when Phil calls after him, “Did you do your history paper?” 

“Oh shit,” Clint swears into the night. 

Balancing being a superhero-in-training and homework was never going to be easy.

* * * * * 

Despite Phil’s desperate plea for anonymity, the Young Avengers have made it on the morning news. Phil wakes up to Tony helping himself to breakfast in the kitchen. Even though he, Happy and Pepper moved out of Avengers Tower after the Skrull-Kree Invasion, the rest of the Avengers still managed to make their way into their apartment at some point; Tony more often than the others because he likes to annoy Pepper even before she gets to work.

“Hey Phil,” Tony greets him, as he attempts to make pancakes, “You’re up early,”

“I have school,” Phil reminds him as he puts his schoolbag on the table and goes to help himself to coffee. 

“You’re still doing that,” Tony says, as if it was a nasty habit that Phil should break.

“Yes,” Phil says, turning on the television to the news while avoiding looking too closely at what Tony is attempting to make, fully aware that he’s probably going to be made to eat it in a moment, “About another two years to go,”

He switches the television to the news channel and his heart sinks when he recognises the footage of the bank robbery yesterday. Of course they would have into the news, the discussion around superheroes seems to have become a media favourite with the activities of every group from the Avengers to the X-Men being studied and analysed and criticised. 

Tony looks up from the frying pan to wince at the footage, “Uh-oh, more of these yahoos,” he says.

“What?” Phil asks, feigning innocence very well. 

“Yep, Steve’s not going to be happy,” Tony says casually, “He hates all these kids running around pretending to be superheroes, and I kind of agree with him,”

“There’s a surprise,” Tony and Steve may be the best of friends but they can never find anything to agree on, whether its politics or ice cream flavour. 

“No, listen Phil,” Tony says seriously, “If say someone was using borrow StarkTech in order to back up a team of enterprising teenage superheroes…I’d suggest that they’d stop before someone got hurt…or arrested…or someone’s mom found out and they got grounded,” 

Phil remains calm because of course Tony would know that Phil had been using bits of unused StarkTech from his lab. And of course he would recognise the purple wearing archer as Clint. And the only reason he hasn’t told Steve about this and he’s not getting a lecture from Captain America about this, is that he’s probably a little impressed.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Phil replies as the news item finishes. 

“I’m glad we’re on the same page,” Tony replies, scraping the pancakes onto a plate, “I made you breakfast,”

Tony’s creation doesn’t look like or taste like pancakes, but it doesn’t taste bad either. 

Tony also insists on giving Phil a lift to school and Phil almost dies of embarrassment as he yells out of the car, across the crowded quad, “Have a nice day at school Phil!” before cackling and driving off. Most of the students know Phil as the foster child of the CEO of Stark Enterprises, so the connection between Phil and the Tony Stark isn’t lost on them. It doesn’t mean they don’t stare at him as he makes his way to his first class. Phil really hates being stared at. 

He’s a little bit grateful for the distraction that comes in the form of a large crowd of kids centred on one of the lunch tables. He’s a little less grateful when he realises that something’s bugged Flash a little earlier than usual today, as he’s holding a freshman by the ankles over an abandoned lunch tray. The onlookers are cheering him on and it just makes Phil realise how the mob mentality seems to overtake his fellow classmates so quickly. 

He’s just about to step in when he sees Peter make his way through the crowd. Peter, who wouldn’t usually say boo to a goose, has a strong sense of justice. He’s incredibly shy but he can’t stand back and watch people get hurt. Phil is kind of proud to be his friend. 

“Put him down Flash,” Peter begins by mumbling, but responding to Flash’s taunt to take a picture becomes more bold and declares, “Put him down…Eugene,”

The whole school knows that Flash isn’t really called Flash, because honestly who names their child that. And apparently being called Eugene is a sore spot because he drops the freshman and punches Peter in the face. 

Phil takes this as his cue to step in. Both Phil and Clint have been trained in hand to hand combat by Black Widow, and while Phil seldom uses his martial arts prowess, he’s more than ready to defend his friend. 

He’s glad when he doesn’t have to. Gwen Stacy marches up to Flash interrupting his Neanderthal posturing and tells him to cut it out. Phil really likes Gwen.

The bell rings and the rabble disperses; leaving a miserable looking Peter on the ground, checking his dropped camera.

“That was pretty cool…what you just did,” Phil tells Peter, helping him to his feet.

“Thanks,” Peter replies, which is good because most of the time Phil can barely get a mumble out of him.

“Are you OK?” Phil asks, checking Peter’s irises from a sign of concussion.

“No, no, I’m fine,” Peter says, distracted as usual, this time by the sight of Gwen Stacy who is walking away into the crowd.

“You did get punched in the head,” Phil says, following his gaze, “But on the plus side, I think Gwen noticed you,”

It’s a little sad at how eager Peter looks at this. 

* * * * *

Clint doesn’t see Phil until third period that day and celebrates by practically jumping on his back in the hallway. Phil indulges him but then looks serious.

“I’ve got to talk to you,” he whispers, “About the Young Avengers,” he says looking around. 

Clint sighs because Phil’s never been very keen on the idea, and it’s taken a lot of prodding to even get this far, “What’s the matter,”

“We’ve been found out,” Phil explains as they go into English class, “Tony came to visit me this morning, he made me breakfast,”

“That must have been an experience,” Clint says, fully aware of Tony’s incorrect self-belief that he can cook. 

“He saw the news report, he knows what’s going on,” Phil says, sitting at their usual desk by the window, “I think we should put a hold on everything…at least for a while,”

Clint’s disappointed but agrees; he doesn’t feel like facing any of the Avengers once they get caught out. He doesn’t have a chance to respond though because a basketball comes crashing across the room and bounces off their desk. Neither one of them flinches, Clint just jerks out a hand to catch the ball one handed. 

“Oops, sorry,” Flash says insincerely. 

“Quick throwing it inside then,” Clint says throwing it back a little harder than necessary but Flash’s is always acting like a jerk, especially to Phil. To the untrained eye, Phil comes across as a bit of a geek. He goes to chess club, is third in the class after Peter and Gwen and still has an unhealthy obsession with anything Captain America related. These are all the reasons that Clint loves him and it pisses him off that Flash chooses to pick on him because of this. 

Flash catches the basketball but doesn’t leave them alone, instead chooses to approach Phil and bounce the ball up and down on his desk, “Hey, does your boyfriend know that you’re cheating on him with Parker,”

Phil doesn’t rise to this, at all. He just raises an eyebrow, looking highly unimpressed with the calibre of Flash’s taunts today. He carries on unpacking his books for class and looks ready to restart his conversation with Clint when Flash snatches his pen out of his hands. 

Phil tenses up immediately. Clint knows that he’s had to leave a lot of his old life with his parents behind, but that pen is one of the few things he has left. Phil’s father used to write history books before he was killed about three years ago and that pen was what he used to write notes. It’s an old fashioned fountain pen that Phil uses for pretty much everything and refuses to lend to anyone.

Now that it’s in Flash’s hands, he seems to have frozen up, “Give it back, Flash,” he grits out eventually. 

Flash just twiddles the pen around in his fingers, taking it out of Phil’s reach. Clint’s shocked to see that rather than looking he’s about to use his ninja moves on Flash, Phil looks on the brink of tears.

This makes Clint very, very angry. He gets to his feet, kicking his chair away, “You heard him,” Clint says threateningly. 

Threats don’t seem to work with Flash though, it only escalates the situation slightly because now Flash can sense that there’s about to be a fight, “Make me, Clint,”

Clint does make him. By the time Miss Munroe arrives in the classroom, Clint has Flash on the ground in a headlock, pressing one knee heavily into his back. The rest of the class are gathered around, half impressed and half shocked. Phil seems to be staying away from the whole mess.

“Harrison, Thompson!” Miss Munroe yells loudly enough to silence to whole class, “Get out of my classroom this instant,”

Clint realises the enormity of the situation once he releases Flash and gets to his feet. Fighting in school is not something that’s going to go unpunished; his parents are going to get called into school and then the likelihood of them finding out that Phil is still alive and going to the same school as Clint is going to double. That is going to be a horrible explanation that will probably involve Clint telling his parents that he’s the reincarnation of a former Avenger created by the Tesseract in an alien realm. 

It is going to be so horribly complicated that Clint’s head is already starting to ache. 

He regretfully places Phil’s pen carefully on the desk and shoots Phil an apologetic look because the poor guy looks kind of shocked and follows Flash out of the classroom. 

“That was awesome,” Flash mutters as they go out into the corridor, “Where’d you learn to do that?”

“Shut up Flash,” Clint mutters, giving Flash a punch on the shoulder.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Clint and Phil attempt to take their relationship even further physically, leading to embarrassment. Thankfully, Clint has Bruce and Tony to give him 'the talk'.

Clint gets lucky. Really lucky.

The Principal isn’t in that day and the Assistant Principal is too busy dealing with a freshman who set fire to a trashcan. Clint and Flash are given to the only teacher who’s not occupied to deal with them. 

Mrs Blair is a drama teacher; typically scatter-brained, constantly quoting Shakespeare and wearing far too many scarves. She peers at them both over her thick rimmed circular glasses as they sit on the beanbag chairs that take up the drama office instead of a desk. 

“So, boys,” she says finally, “Fighting?”

Clint looks incredibly ashamed and occupies himself picking a whole in the beanbag. Flash also looks chastened; he’s brave enough when he’s alone but faced with a disapproving adult, Flash pretty much crumbles and becomes a ten-year-old again. 

“Sorry, Mrs Blair,” Clint mumbles. Clint doesn’t take drama so he’s not very familiar with Mrs Blair, other than the fact that she’s quite often seen floating around campus, reciting poetry to trees. 

“It’s not me you’ve got to be sorry for,” Mrs Blair replies, “It’s each other, now shake hands and apologise,”

Clint groans inwardly and turns to face Flash, “Sorry,” he says grudgingly, holding out his hand. 

“I’m sorry,” Flash replies and they shake hands weakly. 

“There we go,” Mrs Blair says happily, “Now in terms of punishing you…I think we should be a little creative, find a healthy outlet for all that pent up aggression,” She hands them both flyers, calling for budding actors to audition for the school play, “The drama department is strongly lacking in male actors to auditioned for this year’s production, I expect to see you both at the audition after school,”

Clint thinks he would prefer detention, “Mrs Blair, I don’t act,”

“This is a school Clint,” she replies, “You’re here to learn,”

Flash looks just as upset about it as Clint feels, “I have basketball practice,”

“You’ll have time,” Mrs Blair says, with an undercurrent of threat, “Or you’ll be sitting in front of the Principal,”

Clint leaves the drama office feeling as if he’s been blackmailed. 

* * * * * 

Clint takes his punishment like a man and goes to the audition. The play is ‘A View from the Bridge’ which Clint hasn’t read but he’s seen Phil reading. So he stands on the stage, next to a scowling Flash, and reads his lines in a monotone, barely looking up from the script because maybe if he’s terrible enough Mrs Blair will just let him go.

Clint and Flash read a scene together and appear to have a competition over who can read their lines the worst. Flash wins, but its close. Mrs Blair doesn’t look impressed and neither does Missy Kallenback, a girl who goes to chess club with Phil and seems to be the only one who actually wants to be there. 

“If you’re not going to do this properly, don’t mess it up for me,” she tells Clint through gritted teeth as Mrs Blair directs them to do a scene together. 

Clint feels a little guilty for this because it’s not often that people pay attention to Missy. She’s the person that is always there but no one ever talks to, she organises everything around the school but no one ever thanks her. Clint should probably take this a little bit seriously.

So he thinks about his lines, he occasionally looks up from the script and adds a little inflection to his voice. Hopefully, it’s not enough for Mrs Blair to actually think about casting him. Missy seems to look grateful though. 

Clint goes back to Phil’s place after the audition, feeling only a little sullen about being forced to act against his will but grateful that his parents weren’t called into school. Clint’s greeted at the door by Happy who gives him a suspicious look, “What did you do?” he says. 

“Nothing,” Clint says defensively, he’s not sure how much Happy knows about the fight in school. 

“Yeah, well Phil’s pretty upset,” Happy says narrowing his eyes, “And won’t say anything about it,”

Clint feels Happy’s glare on the back of his head as he goes to Phil’s room, for once he knocks on his door before entering. Phil’s sitting on the edge of the bed looking thoroughly miserable. 

“Hey,” Clint says lamely. 

“Did you get into trouble?” Phil asks quietly. 

“Not much, Mrs Blair made me audition for the school play,” Clint shrugs, “I don’t think she really understands the concept of punishment. Are you OK?” Clint asks, noticing that Phil’s still clutching his father’s pen.

“I’m fine,” Phil says, not sounding fine, “But you shouldn’t have done that, Flash would’ve given it back eventually,”

This frustrates Clint, the way Phil just seems to put up with things rather than do anything to change them, “He had your dad’s pen,” Clint insists, “And he was being a dick…maybe he won’t be a dick again,”

“Flash isn’t going to change just because you put him in a headlock,” Phil says, shaking his head, “There are some deep seated insecurities that embarrassing him isn’t going to solve,”

Clint can’t actually believe that Phil’s actually analysing his bully’s problems, “Are you serious? You actually feel sorry for him?”

“Well, yes,” Phil says obviously, “I don’t know anything about him, the same way that he didn’t know the significance of the pen,” he says looking down at it sadly. 

“I don’t like it when people make you sad,” Clint tells him. 

“I feel sad a lot of the time,” Phil confesses, almost sounding shamed.

Clint’s heart sinks as he goes to sit next to Phil on the bed, “You should tell me when you feel sad,” he tells him quietly, taking hold of his hand. 

He doesn’t know if Phil will actually tell him, he’s a very private person. As he’s got older, Clint’s noticed how he’s become even more closed off and it worries him slightly. 

* * * * * 

Phil likes Peter’s Aunt May and Uncle Ben, they’re good people who enjoy having Phil around their house and feeding him things. 

“Cookies!” Aunt May announces as she bustles into Peter’s room without knocking. They’re both sitting cross legged on the floor doing their math homework.

“Aunt May,” Peter says, sounding outraged, “We’re working,”

“Nonsense,” she scoffs clearing a space on the desk, “There’s always time for cookies,”

Phil agrees with this sentiment as he gets up to help himself, “Thank you Mrs Parker,”

“Phil!” she exclaims, “What have I told you?” 

“Thank you Aunt May,” Phil mumbles before taking a large bite of cookie. 

“You boys work too hard,” she tells them before shutting the door on them. 

“She never brings me cookies when you’re not here,” Peter says grudgingly. 

Phil sits back down to return to his advanced algebra homework before spotting a battered briefcase propped up against Peter’s bed.

“What’s that?” Phil says pointing at it with his pencil. 

Peter tries to look like its nothing special, “It was my dad’s,” he says uncomfortably, “I found it in the basement,”

Peter doesn’t talk about his parents much, which is OK because Phil doesn’t talk about his either. It’s an unspoken, mournful bond they both have. Phil can tell that Peter’s hiding something because he shoots Phil an unconvincingly innocent look and shoves the briefcase under his bed with one foot. 

“Just some old papers and things,” he says casually. 

Peter’s never been the best sharer but neither has Phil so that’s fine. They just continue with their math homework. 

* * * * * 

Despite Clint’s abysmal performance at the audition, it’s not enough to stop Mrs Blair casting him in the play. Clint groans over the cast list pinned to the drama office door.

“I’m playing someone called Rodolpho,” Clint tells Phil who is kind of laughing at Clint’s despair, “Is that a big part?”

“One of the leads,” Phil informs him regretfully.

Clint practically smacks his head against the door, “And she cast Flash as well, he was even worse than I was,”

“He’s playing Marco…your brother,” Phil says reading the cast list. 

Clint’s face falls, “You’re kidding, right?” he had hoped to give Flash a wide berth for a long time but apparently that wasn’t going to happen. 

“And Missy’s playing Catherine,” Phil says happily, sounding glad for his chess buddy, “You two have a tragic romance,”

“Maybe I should read the play,” Clint ponders, just as the door to the drama office opens and Mrs Blair steps out.

“Aha!” she exclaims, “There’s my Rodolpho, I have your rehearsal schedule here,” she say handing him a piece of paper, “And your script,”

“Why Mrs Blair? Why?” he asks despairingly, taking the script and sinking at the prospect of learning all those lines and saying them…in front of people. 

“I see potential in you Clint,” Mrs Blair responds.

“I wish you didn’t,” Clint sighs.

Mrs Blair turns your attention to Phil, “You didn’t audition did you?” she asks him, “Because I’m sure we could find something for you to do,”

Phil’s eyes widen in panic, “No, thank you,” he says firmly, following after Clint who is walking away flicking through the script.

“I thought she’d just give me Tree Number Two or something in the background,” he groans as they make their way through the hallway.

“There are no trees in a View from the Bridge,” Phil informs him knowledgably. 

“I haven’t been on stage since I was six-years-old and I played the donkey in the School Nativity,” Clint sighs, “But I was described as both incredible realistic and adorable,”

Phil is fully laughing at him now. 

“This is really going to cut into Young Avengers time,” Clint says glumly.

“I thought we were going to cut it out for a while,” Phil says looking a little perturbed. 

“Yeah…but I mean it can’t help to do a little work…quietly of course,” Clint says pleadingly. He’s not proud of himself for manipulating Phil like this but he can’t help it. He really enjoys it when he’s with the other Young Avengers and he’s good at something for once. 

Phil looks torn, “OK, but nothing big,” he says seriously, “If we get on the news again, there’s going to be big trouble,”

* * * * * 

It’s Friday night and Phil and Clint are partaking in their usual movie night tradition which is more often than not just an excuse to fool around on the couch. Clint’s discover recently that rather than scaring Phil with horror films, he gets a better reaction if he picks something boring. That way, Phil will get bored and his attention will turn to more fun things to do. 

That evening, they get only about half an hour into the film before Phil groans in frustration and rests his head against Clint’s shoulder and edges his hand gradually up his thigh. Not long after that they’re rubbing against each other like the horny teenagers they are. 

The physical side of Clint and Phil’s relationship has progressed slowly throughout the years but ever since the leap forward they took at Christmas, Clint’s been more and more eager to do more. He hasn’t pushed though; he’s not that kind of guy. However, he thinks tonight might be the night. 

“Hey Phil,” he says, extricating himself from the kiss, “Do you think we could move this to the bed?” he asks carefully. 

Phil looks like he’s thinking about it very hard but eventually says, “Alright,”

Clint has to reign in his happy reaction slightly and really tries to not to bound over to Phil’s neatly made bed. The mutual kissing and touching continues on the bed, but this time the aim seems to be for each of them to start losing clothes. Phil’s sweater is removed a little clumsily, Clint’s hoodie is flung across the room and both of their shoes are kicked off the end of the bed. Clint’s just wondering when the right time to remove his socks would be when Phil’s phone starts ringing. 

Phil has a compulsion; he seriously cannot leave a phone ringing. He always has to answer. He shoots Clint an apologetic look and reaches over to his bedside table to answer.

“Hello,” he answers, “Oh hey Peter…no I don’t know much about spider bites…no that doesn’t sound normal…is that so…uh-huh…” Phil sounds like he’s on the other end of a very strange conversation so Clint takes the opportunity to whip his socks off, “Oscorp…that’s interesting…yes, I know…genetically engineered spiders…” Phil sighs, “Peter, are you high? No, no, I believe you…maybe you should just get some sleep…alright, you’ll feel better in the morning,” Phil hangs up the phone and frowns.

“So…how’s Peter?” Clint says, trying not to sound angry that Phil just interrupting them potentially having sex to answer a call from his friend. 

“Weird, he thinks he got bitten by a spider,” Phil replies, putting the phone down, “I’m sorry about that,”

When Clint’s this horny, he can’t stay mad at Phil. The removing of clothes continues until both of them are just in their boxers. Clint’s slightly straddling Phil when he cautiously leans in to say, “I have some condoms and stuff…in my bag,” 

Phil looks as nervous as Clint feels, and Clint feels like he’s about to have a heart attack of excited, aroused, fearful panic. But Phil nods and the panic is momentarily abated. 

Momentarily, of course.

* * * * * 

It was awful; the most awkward sexual encounter in the whole of existence. They didn’t even go through with it. Clint’s sexual knowledge stems from porn and the embarrassing leaflets that his mom just happens to leave around the house. But even still he thought that he knew the basics.

Apparently not because nobody enjoyed what happened last night. In fact, the entire event was cancelled when Phil actually said ‘ow’ during. It’s pretty much the opposite effect Clint was hoping to have.

So the evening ended with both of them deciding to call the whole thing off and both of them very quickly choosing to get dressed again. Clint still sleeps over like planned but conversation pretty much stops and touching is very limited. 

Clint leaves early the next morning and he thinks both of them a slightly relieved about that. He nearly jumps out of his skin when he’s greeting by Happy and Pepper having breakfast in the kitchen. 

“Morning Clint,” Happy says cheerfully, “You want some breakfast,”

“No,” Clint says very suddenly, “I’ve got to go…so busy,”

He flees, very fast and spends the next twenty minutes just walking the streets in a daze. If sex didn’t just come naturally then who was he supposed to talk to about these kinds of things? His parents were definitely out. Sex education basically just covered how not to get girls pregnant, they weren’t exactly informative on technique.

The way Clint saw it, he only had one choice.

* * * * * 

Steve, Bruce and Tony are all sitting around the shared dining room in Avenger Tower, talking over some coffee, when Clint edges awkwardly into the room. 

“Hey Clint,” Steve smiles, “Haven’t seen you in a while,”

It’s true that Clint’s been a little busy with school, family and the Young Avengers lately but he’s hopeful that they’re going to be able to steer him in the right direction. Or at least not laugh at him. 

“What’s up Clint?” Tony says noticing his clearly troubled face. 

“I need some advice,” Clint says eventually.

“Sure, what’s do you need?” Steve says, smiling. 

“I need some advice…about sex,” Clint grits out. 

Clint’s never seen someone’s face change as quickly as Steve’s. The smile vanishes into a shocked, distraught face which has turned bright pink. His coffee cup clatters to the table and he says in a strangled tone, “But you’re both kids,” 

Bruce shakes his head sympathetically, “Oh Steve, you can run away if you like,”

Steve does just that, wandering from the dining room like a man whose just been slapped in the face. He stops to hug Clint tightly to his chest and looking at him in the eye, “I remember when you were just a baby,” he says and Clint hopes he’s not going to cry. 

Steve staggers away with another upset moan and Tony pushes out a chair at the table, “Take a seat kid, and let your Uncle Tony explain,”

“You couldn’t make that sound more pervy if you tried,” Clint says, sitting down. 

“OK, so sometimes,” Tony begins like he’s telling a bedtime story, “When a man loves a woman, or a man loves a man or when a woman loves a woman,” 

“We get it Tony,” Bruce interrupts. 

“OK, so when two people love each other, or even like each other, or even when they don’t really like each other,” Tony says thoughtfully, “You’d be surprised just how much a little dose of hate can really stir up a night in the sack,”

Clint raises his eyebrow, unimpressed. 

“Alright, so when two people want to do the nasty…”

“I know the basic mechanics of it,” Clint interrupts before Tony gives him the full birds and bees talk, “I just need to know, how not to make it painful and really, really awkward,”

Bruce nods sympathetically, “Clint, everybody’s first time sucks,” he reassures him. 

“Not mine,” Tony scoffs, “It was awesome,” Bruce shoots him an unconvinced look which seems to break him, “Alright…it was terrible…I barely lasted five minutes,” he says shamefully. 

“And it’s alright,” Bruce says, a welcome voice of reason, “But the first thing you need to learn…apart from disregarding everything Tony says…”

“Hey!” Tony interrupts, sounding offended.

“Is to take it slow,” Bruce continues, “And preparation is always key,”

The morning progresses with barrage of advice from Tony and Bruce. As instructed he mostly ignores Tony, especially the recounting of his encounters with several Maxim cover girls during the early 2000s. However, Bruce manages to explain things calmly and in way that doesn’t make him go running for the hills in embarrassment. 

It’s just before lunch when Natasha walks into the room to find them all in whispered discussion and the dining table littered with sexual diagrams and crude drawings featuring some very ambitious positions drawn by Tony.

“What are you talking about?” she asks suspiciously.

“Nothing,” Clint says hurriedly, trying to cover the drawings.

“Is it sex?” she says plainly.

Clint lets out a bark of laughter, “No,”

“Do you boys need me to give you a minute?” she asks. 

By the time she comes back into the room, all traces of their discussion have disappeared and they’re all talking very loudly about sports teams that none of them follow.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The boys learn about consequences and the Young Avengers face some trouble.

The rest of the week goes by quite quickly for Clint after his informative but mortifying sex talk from Bruce and Tony. The awkwardness between himself and Phil thankfully disappears by the time he sees him back at school but they are both avoiding talking about it for the meantime. Recently his mom is convinced that he’s hiding something from her, which he is, and she’s also convinced that if she stares at him hard enough he’ll blurt out all his secrets, which he’s scared he might.

So he spends his Saturday upstairs in his room escaping her suspicious glare and spends the rest of the afternoon actually reading ‘A View from the Bridge’. He comes to the conclusion that yes it is a good play but, he does definitely not want to be in it. The thought of having to stand up on stage and perform makes him all nervous and sweaty. He ponders whether if he throws himself off of the stage during rehearsals Mrs Blair will get the message. 

He’s due to meet Phil and the rest of the Young Avengers later that night to do some patrolling, despite Phil’s doubts on the subject. He takes the opportunity to spend the day doing some normal things; he cleans his room (not to his mom’s standards though), he attempts some homework and plays with Mikey on the living room floor. Although Mikey’s version of playing seems to involve throwing toy cars at Clint’s head and stepping on him until he gets a piggy back ride. 

So after dinner, Clint retreats up to his room and pretends that he’s going to bed. Instead, he changes out of the jeans and t-shirt he had been wearing that day and into his combat boots and purple hoodie; most people wouldn’t give him a second look on the street and he’s able to cover his face in case of security cameras. Next, he double checks the backpack which conceals his bow and arrows before reading the text message that Phil sent to them all, informing them of where they should meet. 

Clint presses his ear to his closed bedroom door and listens out; his parents are both snoring away in their bedroom, Mikey’s been asleep for hours and he can just about hear the quiet buzzing of his sister’s MP3 player, she won’t hear a herd of elephants stampeding through her room. 

Clint feels bad about sneaking out at night but he’s got a job to do, he thinks as he quietly lowers himself down the drainpipe and lands carefully on the driveway. Just as long as he’s back by six o’clock, no one will be any the wiser. 

* * * * * 

Phil has a quiet Saturday at home during which he tries to get some homework done but finds himself increasingly distracted. He and Clint still haven’t really spoken about their previous attempt at sex; he admits now that they were probably woefully underprepared for the event. But since then he’s done a little more research and thinks that if he could just get Clint to look at him without turning bright red that they could try it again. 

Clint’s sudden exit the previous weekend and Phil slightly more sullen temper during the week means that Happy and Pepper seem to think that they’ve had a fight. So now Phil’s been fending off sympathetic looks and offers to talk. He is, of course, far too embarrassed to tell either of them what the problem is. 

On top of all that, Peter’s been acting really weird. He didn’t really explain his strange phone call about spider bites and Phil doesn’t really think that he’s the type to use drugs but it seems like the only rational explanation. He’s been more distracted than usual and Phil’s heard the rumours about the incident that took place on the basketball court. That apparently Peter basically humiliated Flash in front of the entire team and everyone else who was watching and somehow managed to smash to the backboard. After listening to Missy Kallenback’s interpretation of the events, Phil’s pretty much convinced that Peter’s on steroids. 

He spends the Saturday dreading going out with the Young Avengers. Tony expressly told him to stop the whole thing but so far he’s been having trouble convincing the others. He just hopes that they can keep out of trouble for the time being.

He gets lucky in that they don’t seem to run into anything major; a couple of muggings and few disturbances on the subway. Phil decides to end the night (or is it early morning) by sending the others to patrol different parts of the city. Billy and Teddy happily go off together while Kate reluctantly agrees to go with Tommy, leaving Phil to finally get to spend some time with Clint and hopefully talk to him. 

“So,” Clint surprises Phil by beginning, “Have you noticed how Billy and Tommy look exactly alike, just with different coloured hair?” 

Phil’s shoulders slump, that wasn’t exactly what he’d hoped they’d talk about, “Yes, I had,” he agrees, because they do look freakishly alike, a fact that most of the others seem to be astutely ignoring, “But that’s not what I hoped we’d talk about,” 

“Oh…OK, you want to talk about that,” Clint says awkwardly. They’re walking down a darkened street that two normal teenagers really shouldn’t be walking alone. Bu they’re not normal so that’s alright. 

“Yes, I do,” Phil says, “And I don’t want you to freak out or get embarrassed…”

“I’m not freaking out,” Clint says calmly, “In fact I was talking to Bruce and Tony…”

“You what?” Phil demands, “You told them about it,” he says incredulously. 

Clint looks uncertain for a moment, “Yes…only a little though,” 

Phil groans as he stops walking and buries his face in his hands, “I can’t believe you told them,” 

“I’m sorry,” Clint says sounding distressed, “I didn’t go into detail…I just wanted to know some things,”

Phil calms down a little, “You just told them, right? Nobody else,”

“Well, Steve and Natasha did hear a little…” Clint says apologetically. 

Phil groans again and wants to pull his sweater up over his head and live there for the rest of his life, “I can believe Captain America knows,” he despairs, “I can’t believe you went talked to them about this and you practically ignored me this whole week,”

“You said not to freak out!” Clint counters, “You said not to get embarrassed. It’s not a bad thing to talk about sex,”

“But you’re supposed to talk to the person you’re having sex with,” Phil snaps back. This conversation really wasn’t going to way he hoped it was going to go. 

Phil’s briefly glad that they’re interrupted by the buzz of the radio he has tuned into the police channel. However, when he hears it his stomach drops. 

* * * * * 

Clint and Phil arrive on the scene shortly after the police and by then it’s far too late. The alley is being blocked off and quite a crowd has gathered despite the early hour of the morning. Clint had never met Peter’s Uncle Ben but from what Phil had said about him, he was a good man who treated his nephew like his own son. It makes Clint angry because terrible things like this shouldn’t happen to good people. Ben Parker shouldn’t be lying dead in an alley for trying to stop a criminal and Phil’s parents shouldn’t have been murdered in their own home.

Peter’s sitting in the back of an ambulance, shaking off anyone’s attempt at comfort. Phil manages to get past the police barricade using that sincere yet frightening look he has and approaches Peter carefully. 

“What are you doing here?” Peter asks his face tear stained. It’s a good question because none of them should be out at this hour. 

“We heard what happened,” Phil says, placing a hand on Peter’s back. Clint hangs back slightly because Phil and Peter have always been unified by a shared loss that Clint, thankfully, can’t comprehend. 

“It’s my fault,” Peter says tearfully. Both his hands are blood stained and Clint realises that Peter must have been there at the very end of his uncle’s life. 

“It’s not your fault,” Phil shakes his head but Peter doesn’t seem to believe him. 

They don’t stay long because a couple of detectives arrive on the scene afterwards to take Peter home. Peter seems to crack up a little more at the thought of telling his Aunt May about what happened. 

As they walk away Phil seems determined not to let Clint see his eyes filling up with tears.

* * * * * 

After hearing about the manhunt for Ben Parker’s murderer on the police radio the Young Avengers searched until sunrise but found no trace of the man. Phil was eventually forced to send them all home. He gets back home at about six o’clock to find Pepper waiting for him in the kitchen looking just as tired as he feels and nursing a cup of coffee.

“Where were you?” she asks calmly because Pepper’s never one to shout at him, “And don’t pretend like you went about for a jog because I noticed you were missing at about four hours ago,”

Phil takes a deep breath before speaking, “I was with out with Clint,” 

“You were out with Clint?” Pepper asks, “Do you mean that you were both wandering the streets because I know you weren’t at his house,” 

“Peter’s uncle was killed last night…so I went to his house,” he explains.

Pepper’s face softens, “Is Peter alright?” 

Phil shakes his head stiffly because he’s not. Phil’s never seen anyone so broken up. 

“This doesn’t excuse you from the rest of the night,” Pepper says, “You know, Tony told me what you and your friends have been doing,”

Phil’s shoulders slumped. Of course, Tony would’ve worked out that the only thing worse than a lecture from Captain America would be a lecture from a disappointed Pepper, “I told him we would stop,” he says lamely.

“But you didn’t,” Pepper guesses, “When did you start lying about so much?” she says, sounding disappointed. 

This annoys Phil slightly because he has to lie about everything. There are so many lies that he’s having trouble keeping them straight in his head. He can’t let Clint’s parents know he’s still alive, he can’t let the people at school know that he knows the Avengers, he can’t even use his own name and he especially can’t let anyone know just how much this is tearing him up inside, “I’ve always lie,” he concludes lamely. 

Pepper runs her hands through her hair and looks more stressed that he’s ever seen her, which is impressive because the woman deals with Tony Stark professionally, “Maybe you should just get some sleep,” she says quietly.

Phil imagines that this is her way of sending him to his room and complies without another word. He just really doesn’t have it in him to fight anymore.

* * * * * 

Phil goes around to the Parker’s house after the funeral. The house is full of mournfully quiet people; Ben Parker was a popular and well liked man. Phil scans the crowd for Peter but is instead greeted by Mrs Parker who doesn’t look like she’s slept in days. She looks pleased to see him though; she kisses him on the cheek and hugs him tighter than usual. 

“Thank you for coming Phil,” she tells him.

“I’m really very sorry,” Phil tells her, quite unsure of what to say but remembering that people used to say that a lot to him when his parents died. 

“You’re such a sweet boy,” she says leading him into the kitchen, which seems to be full of dishes of casseroles, sandwiches and other foodstuffs because apparently giving people food is another thing you do at funerals. Mrs Parker hands him a plate of sandwiches, “He’s upstairs,” she says, obviously talking about the absent Peter, “Could you try and talk to him?” she asks hopefully, placing two cookies on the edge of the plate. 

“Yes, Mrs Parker,” she gives him a disapproving look, “Thank you, Aunt May,”

Phil finds Peter in his room sitting on his chair with his head on his desk. Phil immediately notices the blood stained wanted poster pinned to the board above him and suspects that this is not a healthy development in the grieving process. He places the plate of sandwiches down next to Peter’s head and sits down on his bed after helping himself to a cookie. 

“I don’t like chicken salad,” Peter mumbles, investigating the sandwiches’ contents.

“Yes, you do,” Phil tells him briskly, “Now eat them,”

Peter sits up slightly to eat his sandwiches while Phil loosens his tie and removes his jacket. He really hates wearing suits.

“The last thing we did was fight,” Peter finally says, “I smashed the glass in the door,”

“I noticed,” Phil comments.

“I didn’t know,” Peter says desperately, “I didn’t know this would happen,”

Phil nods solemnly, “I fought with my parents before they died,” he says, he’s never actually told anyone about it, “I don’t even remember what it was about but it was a big, dumb pre-teen tantrum,”

“I’m sorry,” Peter mumbles.

“Just because the last thing you and your uncle did was fight,” Phil swallows hard, “doesn’t mean the lifetime you spent loving him is cancelled out. It can’t work like that,”

Peter sniffs and pokes lamely at his sandwich, “It’s still not fair though,”

Phil sighs sadly, “Peter, I think we’ve both learned by now that life isn’t always fair,”

* * * * * 

“Hey Clint,” Tommy announces brusquely as soon as Clint arrives at the park bench that Phil told them all to meet at, “Why’d your boyfriend tell us to meet here? Does he have any more lame-ass training planned?”

“Tommy if you don’t shut your mouth, I am going to punch you so hard…” Clint doesn’t have time to finish his threat because Kate steps between them.

“Boys, if anyone’s going to be doing any punching around here it’s me, so shut up the pair of you,” she says, physically separating them. 

“Sorry,” Tommy mumbles apologetically, “I just hate it when people are late,”

Clint knows that Tommy gets incredibly antsy when things move slowly, he’s just used to working at a much faster pace than the rest of them that the concept of having to wait for something is completely alien to him. 

Billy and Teddy are sitting on the bench, inseparable as usual, “Seriously Clint, what’s this about?” Billy asks.

Clint shrugs, he has no idea. Phil’s been a little distracted lately; he’s been spending a lot of time with Peter and besides that Happy and Pepper are trying to ground him but can’t seem to get the hang of the concept. Phil just asks permission and they let him go out anyway. 

“Yeah because we were all going to go see a movie,” Teddy says, glancing at his watch. He winces as Billy nudges him in the ribs, “But…um…yeah…you and Phil can come…if you want,”

Clint doesn’t look impressed because he can’t help feeling that they’re an afterthought. It seems that the thing the Young Avengers needed to get them together was Phil and Clint not to be around because recently they all seem to have become great friends. Which is nice, he guesses. 

“Sorry, I’m late,” Phil says, walking up to them, “But I’m being followed,” he indicates the Stark Enterprises car that seems to be crawling along the kerb behind him with Happy surreptitiously glancing at them from behind the wheel. It appears Happy and Pepper have become even more suspicious of Phil’s activities. 

“Everybody wave to Happy,” Clint says, raising a hand. They all wave cheerfully, Happy waves back and parks up. 

“Alright, so why are we here?” Tommy demands quickly. 

“I just wanted to say that I’m out, I can’t be part of the group anymore,” Phil says shaking his head, “You guys can carry on if you want, but it’s not a good idea because this isn’t a game,”

Kate sighs in frustration, “Listen Phil, I know we don’t listen to you half the time,” she says, “And we don’t always get on, but you’re good at what you do. You steer us in the right direction,”

“Yes, but I clearly haven’t been doing my job properly,” Phil says, staring at his feet. 

“Listen, I know your friend’s uncle was killed,” Kate says, trying to get him to listen. Clint lets her talk because she’s definitely forming a more coherent argument than he ever could, “But how were you supposed to know what would happen?”

“It’s not just that,” Phil says sharply, he’s quiet for a long time, “Anyway, I just wanted to say good luck because I know that you’ll carry on without me. Be careful,” he says and without another word heads back towards the car. 

Clint jogs after him, “Phil, are you serious about this?” Clint demands, “Because if you’re out then I’m out,”

“That’s probably a good idea,” Phil nods, “Because Tony knows, Pepper knows and I’m pretty sure the rest of the Avengers know,”

Clint slumps his shoulder because he’s pretty sure that he’s in for about a half a dozen lectures, “You’re right, I made you carry on and I’m sorry,” 

“It’s OK,” Phil says but he has that face on, the one he uses when he doesn’t want people to notice him or to know what he’s feelings, “Happy seems to have remembered that I’m grounded, I’ll see you at school,”

Clint stares after him as he walks away, wondering what he can do to make things right again because he didn’t get his goodbye kiss.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Phil discovers a secret about Peter and finds himself once more drawn into amateur superheroics. Meanwhile, opening night draws closer for a nervous Clint.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about the long delay. I kind of hit a writing wall and it took me a long time to get over it. I should be getting back to normal though. I guess from here kind of needs the reader to know what happens in the Amazing Spider-Man. So, if you haven't seen it...SPOILER ALERT.

Things have been weird lately and Clint doesn’t like it. 

It’s not as if he and Phil have been fighting because they haven’t. On the surface things are normal but Phil’s been distant and uncommunicative. They don’t spend as much time together as usual which is partly because things at school have been really busy. Phil’s working on some history project all the time and Clint’s got play rehearsals which aren’t as terrible as he thought they’d be. 

They’re quite a small group and after meeting after school for a couple of night each week seem to have become friends. Clint can even pass Flash in the hallway with a friendly nod now. Also, Clint’s not as bad an actor he thought he would be. Sure, he’s not great; he stumbles over his lines sometimes, can’t look out into the audience without feeling sick and has to concentrated so he doesn’t get ‘grumpy face’ onstage. But Mrs Blair recently told him that he and Missy have real chemistry onstage which is progress from the first rehearsal when she told him that it looked like he wanted to eat her. 

So Clint spends his time at rehearsals, babysitting Mikey and contemplating the Phil Problem (which it has come to be known in his head). His conclusions are; Clint did a bad thing by discussing their limited sex life with other people, he also did a bad thing by pressuring Phil into continuing with the Young Avengers when he didn’t want to and most significantly, Phil is sad because Mr Parker’s death seems to have stirred up some bad feelings about his own parents’ death. Now Clint would normally solve these problems by apologising, apologising and hugs but he can’t seem to get Phil to do more than smile at him briefly as they pass each other in the corridor. 

“You look like you’re doing some hard thinking,” Natasha says, watching him as he hangs upside down off of the couch in the main living area of Avengers Tower, “Sit the right way up, your face is turning purple,” she tells him as she sit down next to him.

Clint doesn’t tell her that he was trying to think better by making sure all the blood went to his brain because he doesn’t think she’d be very impressed with that, “Things are screwed up and I don’t know how to unscrew them up,” he says, turning the right way up and feeling a little dizzy. 

“Do you mean how Phil constantly looks like someone stepped on his puppy?” Natasha asks with a raised eyebrow. 

“Yeah, that,” Clint replies with a sigh because the simile is pretty apt.

“I don’t think anyone here can help you with that,” she says indicating the tower as a whole, “I don’t know if you’d noticed but relationships are pretty much non-existent for us,”

“I thought as much,” Clint says glumly. It had struck him that the Avengers all seemed to be incurably single, in and out of torrid relationships or tortured by lost loves. It’s really quite depressing. 

“Do people buy each other flowers?” Natasha asks, “Maybe you should buy him flower? Is that a thing?” 

Clint rolls his eyes because that is pretty much the lousiest advice he’s ever heard, “Forget it, let’s go spar,” he tells her. 

* * * * * 

Last thing on a Thursday afternoon is computer science and, because it is so close to the end of the day, most of the students waste their time surfing the internet and generally avoiding doing work. Phil’s not one of those people though, he’s pretty much incapable of slacking off. But he’ll admit that this afternoon he isn’t solely focussed on his work. 

Clint is slumped in his chair next to him clicking on random YouTube videos and occasionally shooting Phil looks, like he wants to say something to him. Gwen is sitting on Phil’s other side, her eyes flicking between the pair of them.

“Seriously, what is going on with the two of you?” she demands eventually. 

Before Phil can formulate an answer, Flash wheels his chair over to Clint’s computer screen, thumping loudly into the desk, “Awesome! Is that Spider-Man,” he says exuberantly. 

It’s a little disconcerting, but ultimately not a bad thing, that Flash and Clint seem to be on good terms now. Clint makes the video bigger and leans back so they all can see New York’s latest superhero swinging in between buildings.

“He is so much cooler than the Avengers,” Flash says, sounding awed. Clint looks mildly horrified and begins a forceful discussion on the subject. Peter, who is sitting at the computer behind them, hovers on the periphery of the discussion as usual, interested but too shy to contribute. He does, however, snort with laughter when Flash insists that Spider-Man could take on Ironman easily. 

* * * * * 

After school that day, Phil goes home, gives up and collapses on the couch with his shoes and coat still on, clutching his schoolbag tightly. 

“What’s wrong with you?” Happy says looking down at him, “You sick?”

“No,” Phil mumbles, curling up into the foetal position and reaching for the remote control, “I’m just tired,”

Happy doesn’t look convinced though and does the typical parental thing of placing his hand on Phil’s forehead, “You don’t feel hot, get an early night,”

Phil lies pretty much comatose on the couch, with his brain completely switched off, channel surfing until it’s time for dinner during which both Happy and Pepper stare at him pityingly.

“What are looking at?” Phil says with his mouth full of chicken. 

“Stop staring,” Pepper tells Happy, still staring at him, “He’s pining,” 

“I’m not pining,” Phil replies grumpily.

“Are you and Clint still fighting?” Happy asks.

“We’re not fighting,” Phil grumbles because they’re not, they’re not doing anything. 

Pepper pouts sympathetically, “It’s alright,” she says patting his arm, “You guys just need to talk,” 

Phil retires to his bedroom with the intention of changing into his pyjamas and maybe doing some homework. He ends up face down on his bed, in his boxers with one arm in his t-shirt. He’s almost asleep when something smacks against his window and he falls off his bed in fright. When he gets (having managed to put his t-shirt on properly) Peter is on the other side of the window, smiling and waving slightly. Phil is a little confused by this because there isn’t a fire escape outside the window and they are also about twenty stories up. 

“Hi Peter,” Phil says, politely opening the window and allowing him inside. 

“Hey Phil,” Peter replies, he’s also dressed as Spider-Man which is another thing that Phil thinks is a little strange, “I might have something to tell you,”

“That you’re Spider-Man?” Phil questions. Once he thinks about it, it does kind of make sense. It only half explains the strange phone call Phil got from him a while ago about spider bites. 

“Yes,” Peter shrugs, he clutching his arm slightly, holding his shoulder at a strange angle, “I fell a little bit…I think I dislocated my shoulder,”

Phil nods thoughtfully and kind of wishes that he could go to bed. 

* * * * * 

Phil searches the internet while Peter explains just what the hell is going on. It’s an unlikely story but then again Phil’s life is comprised of a series of unlikely stories so he might as well believe him. 

“OK, Peter,” Phil says, looking up from his computer screen, “I have done some extensive googling and I think I can relocate your shoulder,” he says proudly. 

“Uh, that’s good,” Peter says nervously, “Don’t I get any pain relief?” 

“Here I have some aspirin,” Phil says pulling the packet out of his beside drawer, “You better that two,” he rethinks, this is going to be painful.

Peter removes the Spider-Man outfit with some difficulty, “Did you so make this?” Phil asks incredulously, “I didn’t know you could sew,”

“Phil, I’m in agony here,” Peter says from the floor, where he is lying down as instructed, “Aspirin really isn’t enough…in films there’s always a shot of whiskey or something,” he says hopefully. 

“Do you know the kind of pain I would be in for if Pepper caught me with alcohol,” Phil says, kneeling next to him, trying to remember exactly what the website said he should do. 

Without giving Peter much time to object, Phil gently takes hold of his arm, bends it at the elbow and carefully rotates it. Gratefully, Peter’s shoulder pops back into place but not without a loud cry of pain from Peter.

“Phil!” he yells, calming down slightly as his shoulder is replaced, “A little warning next time,”

“Sorry,” Phil shrugs.

Pepper bursts in the room, “Phil, are you hurt?” she asks, obviously having heard Peter’s cry of pain. 

Phil can understand how watch she sees might look a little suspicious. He’s practically straddling a topless Peter’s chest, dressed only in his boxers and t-shirt. He can also understand how Pepper might now misinterpret the cry of pain she heard.

Phil practically freezes in place before Peter pushes him off, looking incredibly embarrassed. 

“Oh Peter,” Pepper says averting her eyes, “I didn’t know you were here,”

“Hello Mrs Hogan,” Peter says, scrambling for his abandoned backpack and finding his t-shirt, “I just stopped by for…reasons,” 

“OK, well it’s nice to see you,” Pepper says, blushing bright red. 

“Whatever you think has just happened…” Phil explains carefully, “Hasn’t just happened,”

“Uh-huh,” Pepper says, practically fleeing the room, “Well, you boys play nice and leave the door open,” 

Phil groans and buries his face in his hands. 

“Sorry about that,” Peter apologises weakly. 

* * * * * 

It’s about two weeks until opening night and tempers are running high. 

“Messages. The rich people in the hotel always need someone who will carry a message. But quickly, and with great noise. With a blue motorcycle I would…I would…oh shit,” he fumbles and curses.

“Dammit Clint,” Missy practically screams, “Why can’t you remember your lines?”

“Miss Kallenback, do try to calm down,” Mrs Blair assures her from the audience, “Take a deep breath,”

Missy sits down on the floor and begins breathing deeply, clearly Clint isn’t the only person terrified by the concept of performing onstage. 

“When you have no wife you have dreams,” Flash continues. The only person who seems unaffected by stage fright is Flash who not only remembers his lines better than Clint but also seems to be able to whisper prompts at him. 

They continue the scene with Missy hyperventilating on the floor, Clint desperately wanting to join her and Flash reading half of their lines for them. After their lunchtime rehearsal, Clint staggers, a little shell shocked, out into the corridor hoping to catch a glimpse of Phil before afternoon classes. 

He finds Phil standing next to his locker with Peter. As soon as they see him coming they both stop talking and stare at him, trying to casual. 

“Hey Clint,” Phil smiles slightly. 

“Hey guys,” Clint replies, trying to work out what they must have been talking about, “What’s going on?”

“Nothing,” Peter shrugs. He is a terrible liar.

“Um…OK then,” Clint says awkwardly, strongly getting the feeling that he’s not wanted here, “What are guys going to do next?” he asks.

“We don’t have a class next…” Phil tells him, “We’re going to study,”

“Alright then,” Clint shrugs, “Are you busy after school?” 

“I’m going to Peter’s house,” Phil explains vaguely, “We’ve got some stuff to do,”

Clint’s shoulders slump slightly, “Fine, I’ll see you later then,” he says, wandering off and trying to ignore how both Phil and Peter start whispering to each other as soon as he leaves.

Clint’s being paranoid, he knows he’s being paranoid because he’s thought this before and been wrong. Phil and Peter are friends; people have friends, it’s normal. Thinking that maybe he might cheat on him is an insult to Phil because Phil’s not a jerk. 

Clint shoots them both a quick look before he heads around the corner; they’re both leaning in very close in deep discussion. 

* * * * *

Phil regretfully watches Clint walk away, he’s been neglecting him recently but as it is Phil feels run off his feet. He feels like schoolwork is engulfing him, Peter’s face is covered in bruises and he insists on keeping up this rampage through the streets, arresting every criminal in his path while on the search for his Uncle’s murderer. There’s not much else Phil can do but help in his own way. 

“So he’s trying to grow back limbs using this equation your dad wrote,” Phil asks incredulously, turning back to his conversation with Peter. 

“It’s amazing; it’s like the most advanced science I’ve ever seen,” Peter says excitedly. 

Phil nods because it sounds pretty incredible, “Peter, did you fall on your face last night because you look terrible,” 

Peter frowns self-consciously, “It doesn’t look that bad,”

Whatever happened to Peter as Oscorp seems to have changed him; he’s definitely stronger, more agile and he heals faster as well. The dislocated shoulder Phil fixed clumsily the other night is all better today. 

“Oh my God, what happened to your face?” Gwen Stacy asks, passing by the lockers and stopping to gawp Peter’s bruises.

“Nothing, it’s just a rash or something…” Peter lies. 

Gwen looks unconvinced, “Did you go to the nurse?” she asks.

Peter fumbles and mumbles some more and Phil really tries not to roll his eyes because Peter is completely useless and Gwen is throwing out signals left, right and centre. Phil does his best impression of the invisible man, standing back to observe how the exchange goes. 

“Do you like branzino?” Gwen asks and Phil breathes a sigh of relief because if this was going to drag on any longer, he was going to take a hostage.

They stumble and mumble their way through the conversation and when Gwen eventually walks away, waving goodbye to both of them, Peter looks like he just got hit by a car, “”What’s branzino?” he asks.

“It’s fish,” Phil replies comfortingly, deciding that it’s probably best to talk slowly and calmly until Peter manages to regain composure, “You’re going to meet Captain Stacy tonight…watch out for him,”

Peter looks worried, “What? Why?” he demands, looking worried. 

Phil decides that Peter should probably find out for himself and remains gleefully silent. 

* * * * * 

Clint trudges home after school, dejected at not having the chance to talk to Phil again before school ended. He’d always assumed that he and Phil would be together forever but the way things have been going recently kind of makes him wonder if Phil’s trying to gradually distance himself from Clint. 

He slams the front door a little louder than he intends, immediately drawing the attention of his mom who is playing with Mikey in the living room. 

“Clint!” his mom calls out before he can run upstairs and feel sorry for himself in private, “Come in here, I need to talk to you,”

Clint groans, dropping his school bag and reluctantly going into the living room where his mom and Mikey are sitting on the floor together, watching a brightly coloured kids show on the TV. 

“What?” Clint demands, a little sharper than he’d intended. 

“You’ve been keeping secrets,” she scolds playfully. 

Clint tenses up because he is keeping a lot of secrets. This could be anything from his association with the Avengers to the dirty magazines he has hidden under his bed. 

“You didn’t tell us you were going to be in a play,” she says excitedly, having somehow gotten hold of one of the flyers for the performance. Clint really wishes he had a lock on his door. 

“Oh…er…yeah,” Clint blushes, “It’s no big deal,”

“It’s a huge deal Clint!” she beams, “We’re all coming to see you of course, we might even be able to get your grandmother out of the nursing home for an evening,”

“Please no,” Clint groans. It’s bad enough that he’s going to have to embarrass himself in front of strangers but if his whole family is there he’s never going to be able to get on stage.

“Don’t be ridiculous Clint,” his mom tells him, “You never invite us to any of your school things,”

There’s no stopping her so Clint drags himself upstairs; Mikey crawling after him demanding that Clint play with him.

* * * * *

The next day, Clint is in the state of the art gym in Stark Tower waiting to begin a training session with Natasha. He’s just adjusting his boxing gloves when he turns around to find Tony, Bruce, Steve, Thor and Natasha all staring at him. 

“What the hell is up with you guys?” he asks noticing the weird smile on Tony’s face. 

“We’re going to the theatre,” Tony beams, holding up a handful of tickets for Clint’s play, “It’s been a while since I’ve taken in some culture,”

“You didn’t tell us you acted,” Bruce adds proudly, “And I do love Arthur Miller,” 

“No,” Clint says desperately, “You guys can’t come…my parents are coming…all my teachers are going to be there,” he begs.

“Don’t worry we’ll be subtle,” Steve promises.

Clint highly doubts that, because even if they weren’t part of the most famous superhero team in the world, they still cause trouble and create damage wherever they go. Clint really doesn’t want to talk about the time they went out for pancakes and Tony had to pay the owners a lot of money to stop them getting sued. 

“You’ll barely notice we’re there,” Tony adds. Tony is a man who thinks that sunglasses count as a disguise.

“Rest assured we shall not embarrass you in front of your fellow comrades,” Thor beams.

“Classmates,” Bruce corrects him. 

“How did you guys find out about this?” Clint pouted before turning to Natasha, the only person who hadn’t spoken yet, “You! You betrayed me!” he exclaimed. He had run through lines with Natasha a few days ago and made her promise to keep quiet.

Natasha shrugs, unperturbed at having been caught out, “Maybe I just wanted to see you on the stage,” 

Clint’s shoulders slump, “Alright, you can come,” he grumbles, “But if there is one incident of lightning, hulking, breaking or buying something that shouldn’t be bought,” he directs the last part at Tony who feigns innocence, “I will end each and every one of you,”

Thor laughs briefly at the threat but changes his tune when he sees Clint’s face, “You have my oath,” he says, holding up a hand solemnly, “And I am already practiced in the customs of Midgardian theatre,” he adds, “You are not allowed to talk…at all,”

“Yeah,” Bruce mutters, “Thor kind of ruined Wicked for us all,”


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Phil and Clint finally sort their lives out...but then a giant lizard attacks their school.

Phil’s just wonder if he has enough milk to drown himself in his cereal when Pepper breezes into the kitchen for her morning cup of coffee. She stops as soon as she sees Phil.

“Oh Phil,” she says kneeling down next to him at the kitchen table, “I really hate seeing you like this,” she sighs, stroking a hand through his hair, “Is this about you and Clint?” she asks, “Did you have a fight…about Peter?”

Phil rolls his eyes, “I didn’t cheat on Clint with Peter,” he says icily. 

“Oh, OK,” she says straightening up and sitting down on the chair next to him, “You know anything that’s happening with you…you can tell me,” she assures him, “And any trouble with Clint can be solved if you just talk to him,” 

Phil sighs in agreement; things would seem so much brighter if he just had Clint with him. He’s not even really sure why they’re not talking but it’s probably Phil’s fault, “I’ll talk to him today at school,” he mumbles, eating his cereal instead of diving face first into it.

Pepper smiles and gets up to pour herself some coffee; she turns the television on and sits back down to watch the news, “Oh my God,” she gasps as she watches the top news story.

It’s footage from a news helicopter over the Brooklyn Bridge from last night, there seems to be several cars hanging from the bridge and a giant lizard rampage through traffic. It’s not exactly uncommon for something that strange to be happening in New York, there was an alien invasion not that long ago, but a giant lizard is a new one. So is Peter Parker swinging all over the bridge as the masked superhero known as Spider-Man.

* * * * * 

Phil spends his entire morning frantically texting Peter but receiving no reply. He feels tense all day, and briefly wonders if he’s at risk of stomach ulcers or a heart attack. Several teachers ask him if he needs to go to the nurse’s office and when Clint catches up to him after second period he takes his bag off of him and carries his books to his locker.

“You look bad Phil,” Clint says earnestly, “Should I call Happy?” he asks nervously. 

“No, I’m fine,” he answers in a daze, “I’m just a little tired…”

“Stressed is what you are?” Clint says, looking through and examining Phil’s text book, “You take too many classes and work too hard,”

It’s the first time anyone’s actually told Phil that. Phil’s smart but he’s not as smart as Peter or Gwen, he has to put in a little bit more effort to stay at the top of the class. He does extra homework, a few college level assignments online and that’s not to mention the extra-curricular activities. 

“Yeah, well, it is what it is,” Phil sighs.

“Oh come on,” Clint says, holding up a physics textbook, “At least drop physics…just looking at the cover makes my head hurt,” he smiles, “Stop being such a Hermione and relax,”

It’s one of the many things Phil loves about Clint, his ability to make Phil laugh however low he’s feeling, “Did you just Harry Potter reference me?” he laughs, “Because if I’m Hermione, you’re Ron,”

“I’m fine with that,” Clint beams, he just looks happy that they’re actually talking. So, of course, Peter chooses that moment to appear. 

“Peter!” Phil actually yells at him, making him twitch like a startled rabbit, “Where the hell have you been?”

“I didn’t have any classes,” Peter says, bumping into his locker.

“I need to talk to you,” Phil says grabbing him by the arm and leading him off.

Clint stares after him, still holding his books and looking very disappointed.

Phil pulls a confused Peter along with him, looking for an empty classroom. He settles on shoving Peter into the janitor’s closet and closing it behind them, “OK, so what the hell is going on?” 

Peter looks a little bemused before realising that Phil’s probably talking about last night on the Brooklyn Bridge. He explains about Dr Connors, about how he turns into a giant lizard and on his theories about improving the human race. 

“This is bad,” Phil says aloud, “We have to tell someone,”

Peter nods in agreement, “It’s never good when someone turns into a giant lizard,” he says seriously, “And who are we going to tell. I already tried going to the police…Captain Stacy didn’t believe me,”

“There’s a surprise,” he sighs, sitting down on an upturned bucket before suddenly being struck by a thought, “Wait, how was your dinner with Gwen last night?”

“Not good,” he says looking tired, “I may have started an argument…but um…afterwards I got to kiss Gwen,” he finishes looking delighted. 

Phil smiles because it’s been a long time coming, “And then what?” he teases.

“And then I had to go fight a giant lizard,” he says, his face falling, “Listen, Phil, I’m going to go down to the sewers…to what else I can find out about Dr Connors, I think that’s where he’s hiding,”

“Peter, Peter, no,” Phil says urgently, “That is such a bad idea…you’re going to get yourself killed,” he exclaims.

Before he can say another word, the closet opens up and a wryly amused looking Gwen is looking down on them, “You boys need a minute?” she asks.

Peter trips over his legs to stand up, “Um…nothing,” he says randomly, “I mean no, we’re fine,” 

“Do you want to go and talk?” Gwen asks him and Peter nods eagerly, she turns to Phil, “Phil, go and talk to Clint, he’s wandering the corridors like a lost puppy,”

The two of them leave together hand in hand, Phil finds himself sitting on the upturned bucket for a long while afterwards. 

* * * * *

The next day, Clint wakes up with a mission. He sits bolt upright in bed like Frankenstein’s monster with the solution to his problem with Phil. He dresses mechanically, choosing his softest, most worn hoodie which smells like the strawberry fabric conditioner his mom buys. He marches downstairs with such a look of determination on his that his sister recoils in wonder.

“Clint…what’s going on?” she asks.

“I’ve got something really important to do,” he tells her seriously and she backs off. 

Clint marches into the kitchen, startling his father in the process, and wrenches open a cupboard taking out a packet of cookies. They’re Phil’s favourites, the ones Pepper doesn’t buy because they’ve got little bit of strawberry in them. Phil loves strawberries but he’s quite often deprived because Pepper’s allergy.

“What are they for?” his dad asks, noticing him put the whole packet into his bag.

“Something important,” Clint says, heading for the door. 

“Oh,” his dad says, returning to his newspaper, “Good luck then,”

Clint half marches, half jogs to school. He knows exactly where Phil will be, he normally gets into school to get a head start on any work he has. Clint spots him fairly quickly at his locker, looking even more tired than he was yesterday. Clint pulls his away from his locker, slamming it shut and pulls him into a tight hug.

“Clint, what are you…” Phil demands, before relaxing into the hug, “Oh…you smell glorious,” he says, completely melting, “God bless your mom’s fabric conditioner,”

Clint doesn’t break apart the hug, despite people beginning to file down the corridor to their classes. Flash whoops as he passes them but Clint just gives him the finger, several seniors aw and coo over them and Missy calls them both idiots as she goes to chemistry. 

Clint eventually breaks apart the hug and holds Phil at arm’s length to examine him, “You feel better?” he asks.

“I forgot how good your hugs are,” Phil sighs, sounding much more relaxed. 

Clint nods because he’s been told before just how good they are, “It’s all in the arms,” he comments before taking Phil by the hand and leading him away, “No questions, we’re ditching first period,”

“But we have algebra,” Phil says, being helplessly pulled along.

“That is so not important right now,” Clint says determinedly.

They end up sitting behind the auditorium, in a place that Clint has discovered which is safe enough to get over his general panic at going on stage. Clint gives Phil cookies and they sit there holding hands.

“OK,” Clint says matter-of-factly, “So, we’re both sorry and both our sorrys cancel each other out so everything’s back to normal,” 

Phil looks like he’s about to argue about how it’s not that simply but just nods in agreement and eats another cookie. 

“And about the whole sex incident,” Clint continues, “I didn’t mean to embarrass you or anything by talking to Bruce and Tony,”

“It’s OK,” Phil shrugs, “If it makes you feel any better Bruce emailed me a PowerPoint presentation, it’s very informative,”

Clint shakes his head and laughs before continuing, “And the Younger Avengers,” he says, “I shouldn’t have pressured you into doing anything you didn’t want to do,”

“They seem to be doing better without us both,” Phil adds.

“Yeah, they went bowling the other day, stopped a ring of drug smugglers and caught a serial flasher,” he mentions, sounding impressed. 

“Pepper thinks I’m cheating on you with Peter,” Phil says very quickly, “But I’m not, I’d never do that,”

Clint frowns in confusion, “I know that,” he assures him, “And besides Peter’s as straight as an arrow,”

“He kissed Gwen last night,” Phil informs him.

“Uh...God, finally,” Clint sighs, he was getting a little tired of the awkward UST between the two of them, “Do you want to come to the play on Friday?” he asks, trying to make it sound casual but the truth is the only person he really wanted to be in the audience was Phil. 

“Of course,” Phil says quickly, “I wouldn’t miss your debut. How’s it going?”

And they talk. The talk for ages like they haven’t in weeks and Clint realises just how much he’s missed Phil. He’s not only his boyfriend, he’s his best friend and when they fight Clint loses both. 

* * * * * 

Things feel much better now that he and Clint are talking again. Although they’re both still busy, Clint with his play and Phil with making sure that Peter doesn’t get squashed like the arachnid he’d pretending to be, they both make time for each other. At the moment, they do tend to spend a lot of that time collapsed in front of television at Phil’s house. 

A couple of days later, Phil finds Peter lying on the floor of the library groaning looking even more bruised and battered than ever.

“What the hell happened to you?” he demands, kneeling next to him.

“Yeah…I didn’t listen,” Peter groans, “I went down into the sewers…bad move…Dr Connors is a giant lizard…and I lost my camera,” he pouts, using several science text books as a pillow. 

“That was dumb,” Phil says disapprovingly, “Seriously Peter you to let someone else handle this…the cops, SHIELD, the Avengers…”

“I gave Connors the formula that turned him into that thing…” Peter says determinedly, “I have to stop him before anyone else gets hurt,”

“You look pretty hurt to me,” Phil says, looking around to see if anyone else is in there with them but it’s just Mr Lee the librarian, wearing his headphones and humming along tunelessly, “I know people, I can get help,”

“Oh yeah?” Peter says sceptically, “Since when were you close personal friends of Captain America?” he demands.

Phil wants to tell him that he and the Captain have been friends for several years now, and that he also is on very good terms with the rest of the Avengers. That Tony Stark himself attempted to give him a driving lesson the previous weekend which ended in a raging snark fight between the two of them. But he doesn’t say anything.

“I told Gwen…about the whole Spider-Man thing,” Peter says awkwardly.

Phil grins and nods understandingly, because he knows how secrets can destroy relationships, “Oh yeah?” he grins, “What does she think about that?” 

“She took it surprisingly well,” Peter says conversationally, “She hasn’t tried to get me psychiatric help,” 

“Oh good,” Phil grins in reply, “I think you two crazy kids will last,” he says knowledgably. 

* * * * * 

It seems like an ordinary day at school. Phil is filing into the chemistry lab with the rest of his class when a giant lizard smashes through from the girl’s bathroom. It’s not the strangest thing Phil has ever seen but it’s certainly unexpected. Everybody does what comes naturally and immediately starts running in the opposite direction. Phil briefly considers when it was when the instinct to run away from the scary thing became surpassed by the instinct to rush towards the danger and help. 

There were several students trapped in their classroom, the Lizard didn’t seem to be going out of its way to hurt people but the way it was thrashing around meant that lockers, chair and even students were being thrown about all over the place. Phil needed to get it away from the classroom so the trapped students could escape. He grabbed a stool from his chemistry department and threw it as hard as he could at the Lizard, it bounced ineffectually off of it but he’d caught its attention. The Lizard turned towards him darting forward, switching from two legs to four with ease. Phil ran back down the corridor attempting to lead it away from the others but students seemed to be running in all directions, no one sure what was going on until they saw the Lizard. 

Phil stopped running just long enough to pull on the fire alarm, if anything it would give the school a chance to evacuate. His brief pause had given the Lizard enough time to catch up to him, knocking forward onto the floor. Phil skidded along the ground for several feet before scrambling to get up again. The Lizard was a lot closer now, now focussed on him as his pray. It clawed at his feet again, sending him tumbling to the ground again and cutting open a gash in his leg. He gasped and struggle forward on his hands and knees before the Lizard swept him aside and he collided with the lockers. 

Phil lay there expecting another blow when out of the corner of his eye he saw Peter running full pelt towards the Lizard. He hasn’t changed into his Spider-Man outfit so it looks strange to see Peter moving so fast and gracefully, ever since Phil met him Peter has been notoriously clumsy, constantly stumbling over his fast growing limbs. 

“Run, Phil, run,” he calls back at him, keeping the Lizard at bay. Phil doesn’t need to be told twice, he’s unarmed and slightly injured, even on his best day he’s no match for the Lizard. 

He joins the stream of other students filing out of the building; there are about a dozen rumours in the crowd about what has happened. Most people seem to think that there’s some kind of gas leak in the chemistry department that’s made half the school start hallucinating a lizard. 

Phil sees Gwen fighting her way through the crowd back towards the fighting; she’s wielding the debate trophy they won last year and looking like she can’t quite believe what she’s trying to do. Phil tries to reach out through the crowd and stop her but he’s grabbed by Mr Wilson, his history teacher, who sees his bleeding leg and takes it upon himself to escort him out of the building, despite Phil’s adamant protests that he’s fine. 

* * * * * 

Clint and Missy are already outside, doing some last minute rehearsals for the play that night, when the fire alarm goes off. They reluctantly head over to the front of the school where they usually assemble when there’s a fire drill. 

They’re just passing by the science building when a debate trophy crashes through a window and lands in front of them in pieces. They glance at each other before looking up just in time to see Gwen Stacy following out of the window after the trophy. Clint panics briefly, because he thinks he’s about to see her smash to pieces like the shattered trophy, but she’s attached to some kind of wire. Clint and Missy rush forward to help her down. 

“Holy crap!” Clint exclaims as Gwen is lowered to the ground, “What the hell is going on?” 

She doesn’t answer, just keeps her eyes glued to the window she just fell out of. Clint follows her eye line and sees Spider-Man fighting a giant Lizard. He’s momentarily stunned because it’s like two worlds colliding horribly. He doesn’t get much of a look thought because the Lizard swings its tail out, smashing another window and showering glass down on them. They run for cover and end up sprawled behind a bench. 

“This is a messed up school,” Missy mutters mutinously. 

Clint just about to demand more information from Gwen but she seems to have run off. 

* * * * * 

Phil manages to shake off Mr Wilson and the paramedics that have been called to the school. It doesn’t look like anyone’s hurt but there are a few tearfully shaken students who need some reassuring. Phil examines his leg which isn’t bleeding too badly and starts to limp out of the school, he needs to find Peter. The danger seems to have passed but the SWAT teams are still searching the school buildings. 

The nearly crashes headlong into Gwen who has her phone firmly glued to her ear, “Okay got it, on my way,” she says before hanging up. 

“Was that Peter?” he asks. She looks surprised because Phil may know that she knows about Spider-Man, but she doesn’t know that he knows. It’s all gotten very complicated.

“Yeah, we got to go to Oscorp,” she explains hurriedly, “We need to make an antidote for Dr Connors serum,”

Phil nods and leads her out to the staff car lot, “We need a car,” he tells her, heading over to the nearest car. This is probably the worst thing he’s done in his life but they’ll never make it to Oscorp in time if he doesn’t do this. He takes out his Stark issue toolkit, a compact black device, breaks the lock and sets about hotwiring the car.

Gwen looks dumbfounded, “Phil,” she gasps, “You’re badass,” 

He shrugs in reply as the car starts up, “Get in,” he tells her and she runs around to the passenger seat, “And keep in mind that I don’t have a full license yet,” 

She puts her seatbelt on and Phil pulls out of the school, hoping that nobody saw what he just did. 

* * * * * 

Missy frowns and squints over to the car lot, “Flash?” she asks her fellow cast member, “Did Phil just steal Mrs Blair’s car and drive away with Gwen Stacy?” 

Flash looks over to the disappearing car, “Yeah,” he replies, “Weird,” he shrugs.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Clint takes the stage and Phil bleeds all over a stolen car.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So sorry about the long wait...I'm getting my act together now. The last chapter is just being finished up and what feels like the final story in this series is in the middle of being planned.

Phil kind of loses heart about halfway to Oscorp Tower and has a small panic attack, “Gwen…Gwen,” he gasps, “Why the hell did you let me steal a car?” he demands.

Gwen looks as panicked as Phil feels, she rubs his back soothingly as they drive through the city, “You just seemed so certain about what you were doing,” she tells him, “And you think you’re in trouble…my dad’s a cop,”

“Oh crap, you’re dad’s a cop,” Phil whines, tensing up again.

“Uh…Phil,” Gwen says looking down at his leg, “You’re bleeding all over the upholstery,”

Phil blinks down at his leg, he hadn’t noticed. He must have been running adrenaline until now because now it’s really beginning to ache, “I’m fine,” he said.

Most of the traffic seems to be heading in the opposite direction. In New York, that’s a sure sign that something weird has happened and people are trying to escape. Phil pulls himself together and leans forward to switch on the radio.

They hear about police chasing the vigilante Spider-Man through the streets after a supposed attack on Midtown High and about a Lizard apparently emerging from the subway. People are beginning to flee the city after rumours are spread about a toxin being released; some people say terrorism, some say aliens but a good portion of people don’t care and are just going about their business. 

“Come on,” Phil says, trying to ignore the blood loss, “Let’s just get you to Oscorp, we need that anti-toxin,”

* * * * * 

"Move along, move along," Kate ushers the boys down the row so she can take the centre seat aisle. The auditorium is filling up fast and she wants a good view of what's about to happen.

"Look," Teddy exclaims, holding out the programme, "It's Clint's grumpy face," he says pointing to the small picture of him next to his name.

"He's famous!" Billy laughs, taking a look at the picture, "Oh...that is not a good picture,"

"When is this stupid thing going to start?" Tommy says impatiently, twitching in his seat.

"Oh my God, oh my God," Billy begins chanting, "Is that Tony Stark?" he says in an exaggerated whisper, almost levitating out of his seat to get a better look. 

Kate turns around to get a better look, "Oh yeah, Clint and Phil totally know him," she says casually, "Speaking of Phil, where the hell is he?"

"Why didn't you tell me that Clint and Phil know Iron Man?" Billy gasps.

"Tony, that kid's looking at you like he knows you," Bruce says, noticing the star struck teen gazing at them, "Or he loves you,"

Tony shrugs, "All people know and love me," he smiles at the kid who looks like he's about to swoon.

"Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to come to a high school," Natasha says staring determinedly at her programme, "Everyone's staring,"

Thor, looking as uncomfortable as ever in Midgardian clothing, shifts in his seat, "I have never been to a Midgardian hall of learning," he says interestedly, "It is quite different..."

"It definitely smells like a high school," Bruce sighs glumly, "Like despair and sweaty feet," he says distastefully, "Hey, how's Steve doing with the hunt for the giant lizard?" he asks, sounding more cheerful.

"The NYPD keep getting in the way," Tony says, tracking the progress of the hunt on his phone, "Shouldn't we be helping?" he says in frustration.

"If he needs us he'll call," Natasha says snatching the phone out of Tony's hand, "We're here because Clint would be heartbroken if we didn't show up,"

"No, he wouldn't," Tony laughs, "Did you not hear the him?”

"Yes, he would," Bruce corrects him, "Clint's a very sensitive boy,"

"Oh look," Tony exclaims, looking up, "Mr and Mrs Clint's mom and dad," he smiles at the couple who have just walked down the centre aisle.

Mary giggles in excitement at the sight of Tony Stark, “Oh Dan, he recognises me,” 

Her husband rolls his eyes as they sit down, "I didn't even know Clint was in a play," he mutters, "That kid keeps too many secrets from us,"

"He was probably just shy," Mary replies, "This could do wonders for his self-confidence Dan,"

"Oh, here we go," Dan says as the lights go down and Mrs Blair steps onto the stage. 

“Good evening ladies and gentlemen and welcome to tonight's performance of A View from the Bridge. Now I'm sure by now that most of you would have heard about the trouble we had today at school...”

“Godzilla!” somebody calls out from the audience, to peels of teenaged laughter.

“Quiet Mr Kaye or I'll have you play a nun in this summer's performance of the Sound of Music,” she snaps before continuing, “Despite this afternoon's trouble the performance will continue as normal because after all we are New Yorkers...we never let weird shit get us down”

The curtains open accompanied by the hysterical laughter that comes with students hearing there teacher swear but Kate looks around, still frowning.

"Where the hell is Phil," she demands.

* * * * * 

"Holy crap," Sitwell exclaims, extending every syllable, “That's a giant lizard,” 

“That’s right,” Steve sighs because he’s meant to be at a high school play right now, not hovering New York in a helicopter watching the NYPD be overwhelmed.

Jimmy Woo turns around in his seat, “Hey,” he says thoughtfully, “You know that urban legend about exotic pets that get flushed down the toilet when people don’t want them anymore…”

“Woo, that isn’t someone’s unwanted pet,” Sitwell says, looking despairingly at him.

The helicopter gets in lower so they can watch the police SWAT team surround the subway station. The small glimpse they have of the target is soon obscured by what looks like smoke. 

“What the hell is that?” Sitwell demands over the comm, “Someone get a hold of Captain Stacy, tell him to stop chasing Spider-Man and get over here,”

“It’s some kind of toxin,” Steve ascertains, “We need the whole area quarantined off,”

This is definitely not someone’s abandoned mutated pet, he thinks as he’s forced to watch the toxin’s effect on the SWAT team.

* * * * * 

Flash and Clint are waiting backstage for their cue. Flash is doing the breathing exercises that they learned during rehearsals and looking far too confident. He really seems to enjoy what they’re doing and Clint is even surprised to think of Flash as a friend now. 

“Don’t step on my lines,” Flash informs him in a whisper.

And friend, but an abruptly rude friend though. 

Flash hears the line that signals their entrance and heads on stage; Clint follows him in a daze. He still can’t quite believe that this is happening. About two hundred people are going to be staring at him and waiting for him to not act terribly. They might have a long wait, he thinks as he realises that it’s his turn to speak and he hasn’t said anything. 

Missy is shooting him a fierce look, which suggests that she might kill him if he doesn’t do anything soon. Flash looks like he’s trying very hard not to mouth his line to him. The entire theatre has gone incredibly quiet, a horrible tense quiet like everyone is holding their breath. 

“Oh my God,” Clint can hear Tommy from the audience, “I think he’s going to throw up,” 

Clint takes a deep breath and says his first lines.

The audience relaxes and breathes a sigh of relief, “Oh thank God,” Tony exhales from the audience. 

* * * * * 

Phil slams down on the breaks and the car screeches to a halt in front of Oscorp. Phil sped the entire way for the past couple of miles; if the entire NYPD wasn’t already occupied he’s fairly certain he would have been arrested. He’s still not entirely sure that he’s not going to be arrested anyway. 

“You parked illegally,” Gwen says, loosening her death grip on her seat to get out of the car.

“Ha ha,” Phil rolls his eyes, trying follow her out of the car but finding that he’s lost more blood than he thought.

“Call an ambulance, Phil,” Gwen tells him, tossing her phone at him, “And stay here,” she says before running off to make the antitoxin in the lab. 

Phil flops back down across the front seats of the car before glancing up at his watch and cursing. He’s missing Clint’s play, the play he promised he wouldn’t miss. He groans and supposes that he has the best excuse ever.

* * * * * 

“Where the hell is he heading?” Sitwell calls across the comm. They’re still in the helicopter watching as the cranes of New York rearranged themselves to allow Spider-Man passage across the city, “And who the hell is organising these cranes?”

Steve watches Spider-Man’s progress across the city with curiosity. This isn’t some amateur superhero wannabe like the kids Clint and Phil hang out with, this guy has powers. He’s been shot by police, he’s fallen several stories but he keeps going. For better or worse, this guy is on SHIELD’s radar from now on.

“It looks like Spider-Man has friends,” Steve replies to Sitwell.

“Who says Spider-Man is even a man?” Woo posits, “Could be a girl?” he adds.

“Shut up Woo,” Sitwell snaps, “Or I will throw you out of this helicopter myself,”   
Sitwell and Woo have at best a confrontational relationship but at their worse they just trade insults. Steve is about to tell the pair of them to knock it off when his phone rings and he nearly jumps out of his skin. He’s been in the future for over fifteen years but he still flinches at the sound of his mobile. 

“It’s Phil,” he announces with a little frown before answering, “Not a good time Phil,” he says trying to brush him off before keeping quiet to listen to what he’s being told, “Alright, we’ll be there soon,” he says before hanging up, “

“What did Baby Coulson want?” Sitwell asked. 

“We need to go to Oscorp Tower now,” Steve told the pilot before turning to the other agents, “There’s a plot to release the toxin across the city, release an evacuation order and follow Spider-Man,”

* * * * * 

Phil manages to migrate from the car to the pavement because he feels bad enough about stealing Mrs Blair’s car without bleeding all over it. He spends his time waiting for SHIELD listening to his many voicemail messages:

“I swear to God Coulson, you better be dead because that’s the only excuse for missing this play. The first act is over so if you get here now, you might be able to catch the second act. I will kill you if you screw this up even more…This is Kate by the way,”

“Hey…Phil, it’s Tommy here. I don’t see why I have to suffer through this snooze fest is you don’t…so get here now,”

“Hey Phil, its Pepper. We’re getting a little worried because we haven’t spoken to you for a while. We thought you were going to be at the play tonight…if you don’t call back soon I’m going to start freaking out…”

“Hey kiddo…Tony here, call back soon before Pepper sends out a search party,”

“This is Natasha; you better have a good reason for your absence,”

Phil is feeling pretty woozy now; he managed to take off his belt and secure it around his leg and he’s applying pressure to the wound with his sweater. He really hopes Steve gets here soon; he also really hopes that a medical professional gets here really soon.

His hopes are just about answered as a police car screeches to a halt in front of the building and Captain Stacy of all people. 

“It’s always you isn’t it kid?” he says rushing to his side and checking the wound.

“It’s not like I do this on purpose,” Phil replies weakly, “Gwen’s upstairs, making the antitoxin,” 

“I know exactly who you are Phillip Carter,” Captain Stacy tells him, making Phil flinch at the sound of his birth name being used for the first time in years, “And when this is over, we’re going to have a talk about this,”

Phil kind of goes woozy again when he hears Gwen bursting through the main doors and Captain Stacy going to her. He becomes aware of his surroundings again when someone grabs his face and shakes him hard. 

“Phil…Phil, dammit,” Steve’s worried voice says, “Wake up,”

“I’m awake,” he mumbles opening his eyes to find Steve and Gwen kneeling down beside him. 

Steve looks relieved and angry, “You are in some much trouble,” he tells him, picking him up, “Come on we’ve got to get away from the building,” he says.

Phil is slung over Steve’s shoulder and he can just about see pieces of debris falling to the ground on the street, “What’s going on?” he asks, regaining some of his senses. 

“Spider-Man is up there with the Lizard,” Gwen tells him, looking sick with worry, “My dad’s got the antitoxin…he’s up there as well,” 

Steve carries Phil to a waiting ambulance still looking furious, “Go to the hospital,” he tells him, helping Gwen into the ambulance after him, “I’ll talk to you later…”

Phil has a feeling he isn’t going to be able to talk his way out of this one.

* * * * * 

The play doesn’t go that badly. Clint’s actually pretty pleased with the performance; he didn’t throw up, he didn’t forget his lines and he didn’t get booed off the stage. Quite the opposite really, he gets a huge round of applause when he comes on to bow, he can’t stop grinning like an idiot. He can’t quite believe the rush he got from it; all the way through rehearsals he dreaded being up on stage but once he got up there he found it wasn’t that bad. He feels pretty much invincible now.

Missy jumps him backstage and kisses his cheek in an act of boldness that’s completely unlike her, “Yay,” she shrieks in his ear, “You were incredible Clint…that was so amazing, what a rush,” she exclaims before running off to her dressing room. 

Flash appears next, patting him on the back heavily, “That was awesome, huh?” he beams, “Not bad for a detention,”

Clint smiles in agreement, he started off the play considering Flash as one of his worst enemies, as the jackass who liked to taunt Phil and Peter but the guy seems to have mellowed recently. 

“Hey, by the way,” Flash adds, “Did you manage to find out what the hell Phil was doing before?” he asks with a small frown.

“Um…” Clint says, wondering what on Earth Flash could be talking about, “I don’t…no?” 

He doesn’t get a straight answer from Flash because Mrs Blair bustles past and pulls them both into a hug, “My diamonds in the rough!” she exclaims happily, “Now, do either of you have any experience in musical theatre,” she added, “Because next semester we’re hoping to put on The Sound of Music…”

Clint turns her down because no…just no. He may be feeling invincible but not that invincible. He goes back to the dressing room he shares with the rest of the male cast, everyone’s pretty much on top of the world, and changes quickly out of his costume. 

Outside the auditorium, he meets his parents first. His mother pulls him into a tight hug that makes his ear burn bright red, “Mom,” he mutters.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” she says sarcastically, “I forgot you’re too old to hug your own mother…am I embarrassing you?” 

“No,” Clint mumbles reluctantly, “Did you guys like it?” he asks hopefully. 

“Of course we liked it,” his mom tells him, “We loved it…you were so good,” 

“Excellent,” his dad adds, “So, do we have an actor in the family? Are you going to support your parents when there old and grey with your illustrious Hollywood career?”

Clint blushes even more, “No,” 

“No Dan, he’s going to be a Broadway actor…in lots of intelligent plays and things,” his mom smiles. 

“No reason he can’t do both,” 

Clint finds it strange that his parents seem to be planning out his non-existent acting career for him. When he finally says goodbye to them, with the excuse that he’s going to an after show party with the cast, they seem to be writing his Academy Award acceptance speech.

When the Young Avengers see him they whoop and cheer loudly, which makes Clint blush even more. 

“I didn’t understand that play at all,” Tommy tells him, “Which means it was smart…and you were awesome buddy,” he adds.

“Totally,” Teddy nods in agreement.

“It was so good,” Billy says earnestly, “And if you don’t audition for The Sound of Music…we’re going to have trouble. You would be the perfect Captain Von Trapp,”

“I can’t sing,” Clint assures him, “I’m not going to sing,” he grins, “Where’s Phil?”

The whole group share awkward looks which they seem to think Clint is oblivious to before breaking out into a fresh round of congratulations. Clint narrows his eyes suspiciously. 

“Okay, so we don’t know where Phil is,” Kate is the one to admit, “Haven’t seen him,”

“But maybe he was watching you from the rafters…like the Phantom of the Opera,” Billy adds mysteriously.

“Oh,” Clint sighs before suddenly snapping his head up. He hasn’t actually seen Phil since this morning, he texted him after the whole Lizard thing but received no reply and Phil always texts back. He excuses himself quickly and goes outside the building where the Avengers are standing a little away from the crowd. Tony has his cell phone glued to his ear and is talking loudly to someone, “What’s going on?” Clint asks immediately. 

“Not sure,” Bruce says greeting him with a pat on the back, “That was really great Clint,” he adds smiling.

“Most unlike Asgardian theatre,” Thor informs him, “More people are slain in battle in our ballads…”

“Does anyone know where Phil is?” Clint says, not really wanting to hear any more about Asgardian theatre, which from what Thor has already told him sounds terrifying. 

Pepper, who is standing very close to Happy, shifts nervously, “We don’t know,” she sighs, “We thought you might be able to tell us,”

Tony hangs up the phone and waves his hands around in frustration, “The Lizard’s been caught…turns out he was some scientist who was experimenting on himself…”

“Isn’t it always?” Bruce says, sighing at the familiarity. 

“And that Spider-Man guy got involved…and it turns out Phil knows him,” Tony says, looking pointedly at Clint, “Care to elaborate?”

Clint looks as shocked as the rest of them, “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he chokes out, “Is Phil okay?”

“He’s in the hospital,” Tony tells them all, “He’s fine but apparently he stole a teacher’s car and drove across town with some other student to Oscorp,”

Natasha hums in surprise, “I’m kind of impressed,” she adds, “Never thought Phil would have the balls to do something like that…” she says in approval. 

“Holy crap,” Clint gasps because things are finally starting to come together. Clint kind of agrees with Natasha but he’s still going to kill Phil when he sees him.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Loose ends are tied up and ice cream is had.

Phil regains consciousness properly in a crowded Emergency Room with sitting in the chair next to him with the same furious, worried glare. 

“You’re fine Phil,” he assures him, “You’ve got twenty stitches in your leg and you lost some blood…but you’re fine,” he says sounding serious. 

“I guess now is explaining time?” Phil sighs, dropping his head back down onto the pillow.

“You bet it is,” Steve says getting to his feet, “You need to tell me who Spider-Man is…right now,”

Phil flinches slightly at Steve’s movement, “I don’t know who Spider-Man is,” he lies, not very well because, hey, he just lost a lot of blood.

“Now, that’s a lie,” Steve tells him, “I know you and your friend like to play superhero,” he continues softly, “But I don’t think you understand how dangerous it is...”

“I know full well how dangerous it is…” Phil snaps before regaining control of his tone, “Despite what you think I do have some experience in these things,”

Steve sighs and sits back down, looking tired, “And that’s our fault…that’s my fault,” he says turning to look at Phil, “I was supposed to make sure you didn’t get involved in this, we all agreed that you and Clint would grow up away from this life,”

Phil furrows his brow and crosses his arms, “It’s a bit late for that,” he says bitterly before feeling bad because Steve looks like a puppy that’s just been kicked, “Listen Steve, I love my life, I love my friends, I love Happy and Pepper but I would still trade it all to have my parents back,” 

They are quiet for a long time after that before Steve reaches out and gives his hand a squeeze, “I know Phil,” he nods, “I know you miss them…but please try to remember not to grow up too fast,”

“I’m still not going to tell you who Spider-Man is,” Phil shakes his head. 

Steve rolls his eyes, “Fine,” he says getting up again, “He’s got a good friend in you though, I’m going to get Pepper,” he says, pulling back the curtain that separates them from the rest of the Emergency Room, “I should warn you, I’m not sure if she wants to kiss you or hit you,” he smiled.

“Steve…I’m sorry,” Phil says apologetically, “That all this happened…that this got out of hand,”

Steve shifts awkwardly, “Don’t be sorry Phil,” he smiles eventually, “We should have known that you were too good a man to step back and let other people be in danger…from what we can tell you, the Stacy girl and Spider-Man saved a lot of lives,” 

He disappears off into the Emergency Room and Phil lays back on the gurney, not feeling any better despite Steve’s words.

* * * * * 

Clint finds Phil the next morning sitting on the edge of his hospital bed with his head stuck in the armhole of his sweater. He can’t really find it in him to be angry at someone who looks so pitiful and sighs loudly before helping him out. If he didn’t find Phil’s bewildered face and messy hair so adorable he probably would have snapped at him. 

“Having a little trouble there?” Clint says, raising an eyebrow at him before sitting himself down on the bed.

Phil does his best to straighten his clothing, “I suppose I’ve got some more explaining to do,” he says sheepishly, “I’m sorry I missed your play by the way,”

Clint shrugs, “Don’t worry about it,” he sighs, “There’ll be other plays if Mrs Blair has her way,”

“No…I said I would be there and I wasn’t,” Phil says, he’s always been very good at feeling guilty for things out of his control. 

“So, when were you going to tell me that Peter Parker was Spider-Man?” Clint asks, drastically changing the subject. 

Phil does a double take and looks shocked, “How the hell did you find out?” he demands, “The toehr don’t know, do they?”

“They don’t know,” Clint reassures him, rolling his eyes, “And of course it was him…it had to be someone you know and basically your only friend apart from me is Peter,” 

“That’s not true, I have other friends,” Phil says, looking mildly insulting, “Okay, so maybe it’s true,” he admits.

Clint chuckles before becoming serious once more, “Alright…so it’s Peter, that actually makes sense,” he reasons, “But what doesn’t make sense is that you didn’t tell me anything about it,”

“It wasn’t my secret to tell,” Phil shrugs, “And in my defence, I haven’t know about that long,” he tells him, “You aren’t going to tell SHIELD about him, are you?” he asks hopefully.

“Of course, I’m not going to tell,” Clint replies quietly, “Like you said, it’s not out secret,” he reaches out and takes Phil’s hand, giving it a reassuring squeeze, “You’re a good friend,” he tells him.

“I’m pretty terrible boyfriend though,” Phil sighs apologetically. 

“I’m not that much better,” Clint admits, they’ve both been pretty distant with each other recently but Clint believes that recognition of the problem is the first step to solving it. Or at least that’s what his mom always says. 

* * * * * 

Phil has been living with Pepper and Happy since he was fourteen but he hasn’t had an opportunity to make them as angry as they both are now. He’s sitting on one side of the kitchen table with his foster parents sitting opposite him. 

“Now, Phillip,” Happy begins, using his full name, “Pepper, she’s…uh…too angry to speak right now,” he says uncomfortably, “So, she’s asked me to…deal with this,”

Pepper reaching the point in which she can’t speak anymore is bad news. Phil knows this after witnessing her deal with Tony over the years. 

“I understand I screwed up,” Phil admits. 

Pepper nods curtly and looks like she’s about to talk but bites her tongue. Happy continues on carefully, “We both know you’re a good kid,” he tells him, “But apparently we have to punish you for…um…lying and stuff,”

Pepper looks dissatisfied with the progress of the scolding and finally reaches a point in which she can speak, “What were you thinking Phil,” she says icily, “You could’ve gotten yourself killed,” 

Phil hangs his head shamefully because these past couple of days, weeks even, he’s been keeping secrets, “And I’m sorry,” 

“And you’re grounded,” Pepper informs him, “For three months,” she concludes.

Phil is shocked because he’s never been grounded before, “Okay,” he nods carefully, “That sounds fair,”

“There’s also the small matter of you…stealing a car,” Happy adds, “Your teacher is not happy,”

Pepper massages the tension out of her temples and groans, “Just thanks God she isn’t going to press charges,” 

Phil hadn’t really considered the idea that he might get arrested in all the chaos, “That’s lucky…I really didn’t mean to steal a car,” he says lamely. 

“Accidental theft is really going to work as a defence,” Happy tells him, “You’re going to have to work to pay off the damages…you’re lucky I managed to get you a job down in the Stark Industries carpool,”

“You’re going to work there after school and on Saturdays until the end of time,” Pepper tells him sternly.

“Or until you pay off the damages,” Happy corrects her, “Whatever comes first…”

* * * * * 

Phil’s finally managed to get himself out of the house under the guise of working on a school project with Peter, who has been depressingly maudlin ever since Captain Stacy’s death and his subsequent separation from Gwen, is lying face down on the bed occasionally making groans of despair. Phil can do nothing but sit back and watch the epic moping. 

“She wants to talk to you, you know,” Phil says, swinging around absentmindedly on Peter’s desk chair, “She keeps asking me about you,”

“I made her father a promise,” Peter mumbles, “It was literally his last words that I should keep her out of this,”

Phil sighs, “I know you promised but don’t you think that’s a choice Gwen should make for herself?” 

“No, he was right,” Peter says, sitting up a little bit, “I need to keep her out of all this…you too,” he adds.

Phil actually chuckles at that, “It’s a bit late for protecting me from the life of a superhero,” he sighs before carrying on, “There are actually a few things I should probably tell you,”

And Phil basically spills his guts about everything; about the Tesseract, about reincarnation, SHIELD, the Avengers, his parents… When he finally finishes talking, he actually feels a lot better, it really does feel good to talk. 

Peter looks a little stunned, he sits up and look at Phil closely, “It’s no wonder you’re so highly strung,” he says eventually, “You’re bursting with secrets,” 

“I’m not highly strung,” Phil says defensively. 

“Phil, I’ve seen you break a pencil in half rather than tell a teacher that she’d got the chemical symbol for lead wrong…” Peter recounts, “You are incredibly high strung, very tense,” 

“She’s a chemistry teacher, how does she get that wrong?” Phil says sounding stressed. 

Peter chuckles before straightening his face, “Seriously Phil, why are you telling me all of this now?” he frowned. 

“Secret for a secret,” Phil shrugged, “I figured you deserved to know…I’m not going to tell anyone about you-know-what,” he said vaguely.

“Thanks Phil,” Peter smiles, “Now I just got to make sure my Aunt doesn’t freak out too much about this,” he sighs. 

Phil thinks that Aunt May probably has every right to freak out about her nephew becoming a masked vigilante but decides to keep quiet. 

* * * * *

Phil stops in to say goodbye before stepping out of the Parker household and out onto the street. He immediately spots the dark sedan across the street and briefly panics when it pulls up beside him, until he realises who it is. 

“Get in the car Coulson,” 

It’s Nick Fury, looking as unimpressed as usual. Phil doesn’t see the Director of SHIELD very often but whenever he does he’s pissed off so Phil just assumes that’s his natural state. 

“Not supposed to get in cars with strangers,” Phil shrugs, “And you Director Fury are just about the strangest person I’ve ever met,”

Fury rolls his eye and leans over to open the passenger side door, “Quit screwing around and get in the damn car,”

Phil turns back to the Parker household and sincerely hopes that Peter sees him get in the car in case he’s about to be abducted and disappeared. He gets in and as Fury drives off Phil shoots him a few quick looks, trying to ascertain what’s going on.

“SHIELD may not know the identity of Spider-Man,” Fury begins, “But I’ve got a pretty good clue,”

Phil keeps his face passive, it’s what he’s good at, “Is that so?” he says calmly. 

“Like I said…enough screwing around,” Fury tells him, “I have absolutely no interest in Peter Parker and neither will SHIELD at my say so,” 

Phil furrows his brow a little bit because ever since he’s got out of hospital he’s had SHIELD agents trying to beg, barter and bribe him into giving up Spider-Man’s identity. If Fury knows then why isn’t the Parker household under siege by a SHIELD SWAT team?

“Okay,” Phil says uncertainly, “Why are you telling me this?”

Fury smirks slightly, “As show of faith,” he says simply, “Parker, your friends who call themselves the Young Avengers, even Clint…all off limits,” he assures him.

“Off limits?” Phil asks in confusion.

“There is an ever increasing consensus in government, SHIELD and the World Security Council,” Fury explains, “That the superhero phenomenon that has taken hold over ever since the Avengers formed is getting out of hand,” he says seriously, “There are people who want to detain and control people like Mr Parker,”

“And I take it you’re not one of those people?” Phil inquires.

“I am not,” Fury informs him, “The minute that the government and the WSC gets involved with superheroes is the minute we’re all in trouble,”

Phil nods in agreement but still doesn’t understand why Fury is telling him this, “So my friends are off limits,” he ascertains, “What about me?” 

Fury chuckles to himself, “I’ve said this before, you’ll look me up in a few years,” he says certainly.

“Really?” Phil says, sounding affronted, “How can you be so certain?”

“Because I already know that you and I make a good team,” Fury nods, “But first you should probably finish high school,”

* * * * * 

“You know you’re not making this any easier,” Phil calls over to Clint, who’s leaning against a wall, spreading his arms out and enjoying the sun. Phil’s finishing up his newly enforced Saturday job in the Stark Industries carpool. He mostly just details cars but when there’s a spare moment one of the other guys will let him help with other things; he’s becoming quite a proficient car mechanic now. 

“Hey, I’m not doing anything,” Clint says, trying to sound innocent, “Just enjoying the view,” he comments, tilting his head to one side to get a better look at Phil who is currently bent over trying to vacuum the interior of one of the many limousines.

“You could help,” Phil tells him, “Then this would get done a lot faster,” 

“Hey,” Clint shrugs, “It’s not my punishment…I’m the good one for once,” he sighs and slides down the wall to sit on the floor, “Come on Phil, if you don’t get done soon you’re going to miss Steve taking us out for ice cream,”

Phil managed to get himself ungrounded after only a couple of months. He narrows his eyes and glares at Clint, “If you go out for ice cream without me…I will cry angry tears of frustration,” 

“Then hurry up,” Clint says twitching impatiently, “You know he always lets us get three scoops and toppings…toppings Phil,” he repeats for affect.

“Yeah, yeah,” Phil says, hurrying up his vacuuming, “Three vanilla scoops, butterscotch sauce and jelly beans on top,” he recites Clint’s usual order. 

“Aw…you know me so well,” Clint beams, “Mint chocolate chip, no sauce because you’re weird and rainbow sprinkles because you’re adorable,” he says in return.

Phil turns off the vacuum and pokes his tongue out at Clint who pokes his tongue back before getting up to help him put everything away. 

“I thought you weren’t going to help me?” Phil asks as they store his sponge, bucket and vacuum cleaner away in the store cupboard.

“Yeah, well it’s your first time being in trouble,” Clint says with a smile, “So I figure I can cut you some slack,” 

“I appreciate it,” Phil says, locking the cupboard up after they finish and following Clint upstairs, “I’ve been thinking…”

“Uh-oh, don’t strain yourself,” Clint smirks as they get into the elevator. 

“Ha ha,” Phil rolls his eyes, “I’ve been thinking about sex,” 

Clint narrows his eyes and shoots Phil a withering look, “You always know how to spring these talks on me,” he shakes his head.

“Just telling you what I’m thinking about,” Phil shrugs.

“Yeah, in that case I’m always thinking about sex,” Clint admits.

“We should have sex again,” Phil says conversationally, “I mean properly this time…with actual enjoyment,” 

“Sounds like a plan,” Clint nods, looking very much like he’s trying to stay calm. 

“After ice cream of course,” Phil nods. 

“You know sometimes…I kind of hate you,” Clint says with a smile, “You are very distracting,”

Phil has to stop himself from smiling smugly. 

* * * * * 

The next day Clint goes to meet Kate in the café below the Avengers Tower and after spending the night with Phil, he’s feeling pretty pleased with himself. 

“What’s wrong with your face?” Kate demands as soon as she spots Clint heading towards her, “And are you skipping?” she says incredulously. 

“This Kate,” Clint says proudly, “Is my happy face and my happy walk,” 

“Did you fall and hit your head?” Kate asks, looking unimpressed. 

“No,” Clint smiles, completely unable to snap back at her, “I had a good night last night,” he beams.

“Ugh…God,” Kate says distastefully, “You had sex didn’t you?” 

“Yes, Kate,” Clint says heroically, “Yes, I did. I am a man now, you may notice the change…it’s adulthood, if you were wondering,” 

“You are such an idiot,” Kate rolls her eyes, “Please don’t tell me anymore,” she begs. 

“Oh don’t worry, I won’t,” he tells her, “For I am gentleman,”

Kate makes a pained noise, “Go buy me a soda before I beat you over the head with my shoe,” she grumbles.

* * * * * 

It’s third period English and Miss Ritter is talking but Clint isn’t listening. He’s more focussed on lightly poking Phil in the ear with his highlighter. Phil is taking in very well, keeping his eyes glued to his notebook and desperately trying not to laugh. It’s one of Clint’s favourite hobbies to do anything that will make Phil loose his calm façade and start giggling in class. 

He succeeds when he accidentally managed to draw on the side of Phil’s face, well he says accidentally. Phil bursts into laughter which immediately draws the Miss Ritter’s attention. 

“Phillip, Clinton,” she says, staring them both down, “You’re a very cute couple…don’t make me separate you,” 

They apologise and settle back down as Peter arrives to class late and takes his seat behind Gwen. Clint finds he has a new found respect for Peter now, before he was just Phil’s nerdy friend who he wouldn’t admit to being slightly jealous of. But now…he’s Spider-Man, which is pretty damn cool.

“Late again Mr Parker,” Miss Ritter chastises him. 

“I promise it won’t happen again,” Peter mumbles back.

“Don’t make promises you can’t keep,” 

“But those are the best kind,” Peter says leaning forward slightly to talk to Gwen who smiles knowingly. 

Clint thinks that they probably just witnessed some kind of significant moment for the both of them but just looks at Phil and shrugs. 

“We’re totally a cuter couple than them,” Clint whispers as the class gets back to work. 

“Oh yeah…no doubt,” Phil agrees.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry that this took so long. There's going to be a delay while I get the last story all planned out. There's really only one word to describe it...and that's ambitious. 
> 
> Here are a few clues about the direction it's going to take - Civil War, The Winter Soldier and shawarma.


End file.
